Awake Again
by freedragon
Summary: Gorillaz. 2D is captured and saying he is suffering is the understatement of the millennia, Noodle is missing, Murdoc is drunk, Russel is a giant, and there are supernatural creatures hunting Plastic Beach. What happens next? Possible 2DxNoodle.1st story.
1. Chapter 1

**Awake Again**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Anything about this story, including any character of Gorillaz or their songs or any other songs I might use. The only thing I own is this story line and its plot.**

**Summary: Gorillaz. 2D is captured and saying he is suffering is the understatement of the millennia, Noodle is missing, Murdoc is drunk, Russel is a giant, and there are supernatural creatures hunting Plastic Beach. What happens next? Possible 2DxNoodle.**

**Note: This story I am writing because I feel like it. If you like it great, if you don't then give constructive criticism or BE GONE! Besides that, I might just decide to make the characters of Gorillaz more… ethereal…Maybe. Now, with that out of the way, let us begin!**

Prologue

Plastic Beach is the furthest point from any landmass in the world. It is a collection of all the trash and garbage and other wastes that man and nature have spilled in the ocean through out the centuries until present day. In other words, its literally a huge pile of trash that is kept together by oil, goo, and God-knows what else, but surprisingly enough, its actually quite sturdy and balanced.

But what is even more surprising is that there are some people actually LIVING in that aquatic dumpster. A green man, of average height, crooked teeth, mismatching eyes, and reeking of rum and cigarettes, known as Murdoc; A cyborg with purple hair and military clothing, known as 'Cyborg' or 'Cyber Noodle'; and of course a tall man, with somewhat lanky but sturdy complexion, a pair eyes of absolute black (though it has been known to switch to absolute white in that last couple of years for brief periods of time), and a natural mane of hair of a stunning and lively blue color, who we all know as 2D or Stuart Pot.

The last of the list, been brought to the toxic and supernatural wasteland surrounded by the ocean, through the process of been gassed, and shipped in a suitcase to it. To make matters worse, even though he was brought to Plastic Beach to sing and to write songs, he is still constantly abused and tortured (especially in a mental way) by Murdoc when he refuses to sing or write for him, and more often than not, he is still abused when Murdoc just feels like torturing or venting out anger on somebody.

Added to that, 2D still suffers badly from two loses, the first is the loss of his best friend Russel Hobbs, one of the most prominent drum playing geniuses of the world. But the second loss he suffers from, is the worst, he suffers more from this loss than the physical pain he suffers through Murdoc's torture and abuse through out the years. By this, we refer to the loss of his most especial person in the world, Noodle, one of the greatest guitarists in the history of man kind. Everybody thinks she is dead, except for him. He is the last person to believe in her. How will the world of Gorillaz play out now that it's in shambles?

Chapter 1-Asleep Again

In the depths of the Plastic Beach Mansion, several hundred feet bellow the water level of the ocean, a blue haired singer laid in his double bed in his dark room. No lights were on, the window curtains were drawn close, and even the television which was so often turned on was off today. The only source of light was a little candle that the tall singer had found in the beach a few days ago and decided he might use sooner or later.

2D just laid in his bed in the darkness of his room facing the ceiling of his underwater prison; his black eyes were even more vacant than usual today as he laid deep in thought and memory. Despite what most people think, 2D isn't stupid, granted he was slow, but he actually had quite a good brain on his shoulders, and he could use it too, when it wasn't clouded by pain killers or alcohol or pain from recent torture from Murdoc.

This was one of those rare times, during which he wasn't troubled by any of those factors, and he was dedicating this valuable time to his most precious memories. They were, if he was honest with himself, one of two things that kept him going. The second was hope. Hope that Noodle and Russel would come back to him and the band.

The memories of a time when Gorillaz was together; A time when the world, despite all the pain and abuse he suffered then, was perfect, huge, bright, and beautiful, instead of what it was now: Small, dark, hollow, and Melancholic.

In his mind he ran memories like movies: When he first met Russel after Murdoc kidnapped him. When he freed Noodle from the FedEx crate and she delivered that kickass guitar solo. When they made their first album. Their award nominations. Playing cards with Russel. Playing with Noodle and carrying her around on his shoulders. Holding cigarette flipping contests with Murdoc. Learning Karate and Kung Fu from Noodle. All these memories were playing out in his mind, soothing his tortured mind as the waves of the ocean.

He also remembered a few sad times, like when Gorillaz broke apart the first time. And when Paula cheated on him with Murdoc. And worst of all, el Mañana. He remembered what it meant; in that context it means "the Tomorrow". And he remembered what message they had been trying to send before the disaster struck. They wanted to tell people there is always a tomorrow, there is always a glimmer of hope even when the darkness threatened to swallow you whole. And he dearly hanged to that belief with every fiber of his being.

-_Flashback: El_ _Mañana -_

_He had been singing from Feel Good Inc. Tower from his heart. They had just finished the recording that would be played while Noodle was flying in her Windmill Island for the last video of their new album. This was probably going to be the greatest video if all went well. Everyone was in place, and just then, a bell rang. The signal._

_Noodle would hear one from a speaker that had been installed in the island, and then the cameras began to roll and the just finished recording was started up. All in perfect synchronization. Now they could see the helicopters going towards Noodle's floating island. Something seemed off about the helicopters, but he ignored it. _It's probably just one of Murdoc's last minute change of plans._ That's what 2D had thought. _

_He was so horribly wrong._

_In moments the helicopters could be seen firing bullets at Noodle. Again he felt something was off. They weren't flying like they were supposed to. Their angle was wrong, the guns were of a higher caliber, the very timing of the supposedly fake explosions seemed to be off to him. He frowned a bit and turned his head and commented on it to his two band mates. Russel looked closer and seemed to frown a bit but he shrugged it off. Murdoc just raised his eyebrows at 2D and said not to worry about it. _

_"Even if something goes wrong, she still has her parachute." Murduc told him, returning to look at the video in progress. "Now shut up and Watch."_

_2D did as he was told, but he retained the frown in his face. He saw the helicopters ram into the sails of the windmill, and that's when he realized it. He was absolutely sure that wasn't part of the video. He began to panic, and quickly turned to Murdoc and Russel with an alarmed face._

_"Murdoc!Russel! That ISN'T part of the plan! That isn't SUPPOSED to happen! DO SOMETHING!" His voice rose as he poke, rising to a scream of panic, at Murdoc and Russel, hoping they could do something. But they had just become aware of their error in judgment, and were rooted to the floor, brains frozen in shock, jaws hanging open, and stunned expressions clearly visible in their faces._

_He called them several two more times, but they didn't respond, even when he slapped them in the face or waved his hands in front of their faces they would not respond. Then, Noodles Voice came though the two-way radio, screaming for help_

_"_HELP_!" Her screaming voice shouted through the speaker,_ "Murdoc-san! Russel-sama! _These aren't OUR helicopters!_ 2D! HELP!_'_

_He lost it then, the sound of her terrified voice made something inside of him snap. "_She is never scared!" _And "_She is in real danger!"_ Those were the two thoughts that instantly materialized in his mind. In his abnormal state of mind, he tackled both of his band mates. He landed on top of both of their stomachs, grabbed each of them by the collar of their shirt and shook them as violently as he could._

_"__**WAKE UP! WAKEUP WAKEUP WAKEUP! NOODLE IS IN TROUBLE!**__" He yelled at them with all his strength, and followed through by unintentionally slamming their heads on the floor. This finally seemed to wake them up from their frozen state of mind and caused them to realize the gravity of the situation._

_The first to react after 2D's assult was Russel._

_"Quick, to the helicopter!" Russel said. They ran out the door, 2D at the head of the pack, and rushed up two flights of stairs to reach the roof, were an emergency helicopter was positioned, and ready to take off._

_Russel jumped in as the pilot with Murdoc as the co-pilot. 2D went in the back with the door open and strapping a parachute on his back, readying himself to jump if needed be. They immediately set flight towards the floating Island, which they now saw beginning to tilt downwards. A curse escaped them all; they headed towards the site as fast as they could force the machine to go. _

_Thank God Russel had insisted in the latest model of helicopter just in case an emergency did occur._

_They were very close to the island now. A couple of more seconds and they would be right over it. The only problem was that it was beginning to loose altitude and fast. Soon it would be free falling and then, of course, there was the inconvenient of the highly militarily equipped helicopters flying around it._

_"EHH! Dullard!" Murdoc called out to 2D. " We are going to fly over them, You are going ta' have ta' jump when we start getting close but befo' we actually ah' above 'em, that way yew can reach them due ta momentum or something. That's what Russel says anyways. Yew ah' the only one that knows how to do it. Got it? Good!" _

_"__**NOW!**__" Russel voice thundered over the roar of the helicopter, and 2D jumped of without hesitation towards the ground several thousand feet bellow him. He had done this before, several times actually, for several photo shoots and the such for magazines, television shows, and commercials. He knew what to do, and through this knowledge and his own experience, he calculated that, at this height, the island would be crashing down at the most in two minutes or so._

_He dove straight as an arrow, hands and feet tucked in, face looking towards his destination. The air rushed around him, his hair flowing wildly behind his head, like a mane of blue fire as the air screamed in his ears with its hollow voice._

_He was closing in on the island now, and a few moments later he was level with the entrance to the windmill, he spread his arms out, coming into a cross position and slowed a bit down. If he had not been free falling with at the same speed of the Island, it might have looked like he was levitating in the entrance of the windmill._

_2D looked towards the doorway of the windmill, and was greeted by the sight of a terrified Noodle, who had her hands and arms covering her face and upper body, her legs were drawn towards the trunk of her body, as if bracing for impact._

_"NOODLE!" 2D managed to shout over the roaring wind, as he reached for the rim of the wooden door frame of the windmill and began to climb down its side to reach noodle. He now saw why Noodle didn't jump before, the helicopters had filled the parachute with at least five holes! But it had at least saved her from bullet wounds to her shoulders._

_At the sound of his voice, Noodle opened looked up at him with a bewildered yet scared expression, which was quickly replaced by a look of joy, when he extended his long arm towards her, which she quickly hanged onto for dear life with all her strength. 2D then released his hold on the door frame and kicked of it, pulling with him Noodle away from the island._

_He looked down; they were entering a large canyon, which opened up like an old wound on the phase of the earth, so it was to late to change directions, but they still had maybe thirty seconds of free fall left. He drew Noodle into his arms in a tight hug and released his parachute. With a violent jerk, they immediately began to slow down their fall into, going into a much more agreeable, and much less deadly, speed, much to their relief. _

_Somehow, 2D managed to steer his parachute within the canyon's rocky walls and away from were he predicted the landing site for the windmill would be, trying to create as much distance between them and any debris and rocks which might be sent flying off the soon-to-be ex-floating Island. He managed to get a good hundred and fifty meters away from it, and they were about twenty feet from the ground, and they allowed themselves to give a sigh of relief._

_Too soon. They let their guard down too soon._

_Just then, one of the helicopters dropped a bomb into the windmill. They were just far enough to avoid its lethal effect, but the blast separated them from each other, sending both flying the remaining ten feet to the ground in different directions. _

_They were tossed around like rag dolls, flying in an ungraceful and chaotic mess in different directions. 2D landed hard on his back against one of the cliffs walls, a searing pain stretch across his back, and Noodle crashed in an old bush on the opposite cliff wall, maybe a hundred meters from him. He groaned with pain, but managed to flip himself over onto his belly and push himself slightly up with his arms to look towards her. He saw her; she was looking at him almost upside down, since she had landed in an awkward sprawled position, and she quickly passing out, a trickle of blood seeping from a wound on her shoulder and onto her face._

_His vision was beginning to blur, but he forced himself to attempt to crawl towards her anyways. He hadn't gotten far when the earth began to shake, and a gaping hole began to open up near Noodle. The hole began to glow with an eerie red color, and the shaking of the ground caused noodle to start toppling towards the hole. _

_"Noodle… No!" He tried to scream as he saw her fall into the hole, but it was barely louder than a choked cry. He released his parachute from his body, and attempted to stand up and get closer. He managed to stumble half way towards the hole were noodle had disappeared and then…Darkness. 2D collapsed forwards and lost consciousness before he had hit the floor._

_The wounds 2D received to his body, along with the exhaustion of all his worrying and the loss of blood from a large gash on his back, made him pass out._

_Later he awoke to find himself in the emergency tent by Feel Good Inc. Tower, bandages covering his whole upper back, his left arm, and right leg. He told Guys about the incident, and Murdoc concluded that what had swallowed Noodle was something similar to a hell hole, but probably, due to her own purity and the nature of the location of the hell hole, it probably led some were between Hell and some other place, like purgatory._

_Soon after the Band dissolved. You could say they were all part of each other now, whether they liked it or not. You could also say (and it wouldn't be an exaggeration at all) that 2D and Noodle were the Body and Soul of Gorillaz, in a sense they were more than just your average best friends. They were connected on an spiritual level, and, to the band, each of them was half of the Soul and Half of the Body of Gorillaz; Different from Murdoc and Russel, Murdoc been the Brain of Gorillaz who always found a way to bring Gorillaz to the top, and Russel been the Heart of Gorillaz, always caring and feeding them. And without Half a body and half a soul, The Body of Gorillaz could not function, just like a human body wouldn't be able to function without a brain or a hear or half of its body and soul missing. _

_The band looked for Noodle for three months together. Then Murdoc dropped out, and two months later so did Russel. Only 2D still harbored hope of finding or even seeing Noodle again alive. Everyone else had lost all hope of even finding her dead body. _

_And that Was the Last the world heard of Gorillaz for three years._

_-End of Flashback-_

A tear ran down 2D's face as he closed his eyes when the memory came to an end. Three years. Three years since he had been missing half of his soul. Three years since Gorillaz had dissolved. And two years since he had been kidnapped by Murdoc, with Murdoc torturing, abusing, and mocking him, all the while taking credit for the great majority of his musical creations.

A sigh escaped 2D at these thoughts. And he opened his eyes and drew in a shaky breath. He sat up in his bed and closed his eyes again. He slowly stood up and cleared a good piece of his bedroom's floor, just enough for him to lay in it comfortably. He pushed all his trash, gadgets, and stuff into a corner and began his work out routine. It was one of the few things he did to pass the time in this prison that was his room.

He did two sets of twenty three sit ups, three sets of eighteen push ups, some jumping jacks, and so on. In the end, he spent a good hour and a half doing his routine work out, which since he had been doing since about a year ago, it had earned him some muscle in his arms and a well-toned body over all.

He showered and dressed quickly after his workout, and sat down on his bed again, just in time, as a loud banging on his door began, which was quickly followed by the door swinging open to reveal cyborg noodle standing in the doorway.

"Evening Dullard." Cyborg said, "Master Murdoc has ordered me to tell you that practice begins in half an hour."

2D sighed and closed his eyes. He opened them again and nodded at her in understanding. Then he looked down and gave a short and humorless chuckle as she began to turn away, which caused her to stop and turn back to look at him questioningly.

"What is so funny Dullard?" She asked with a neutral tone.

He sighed and looked at her again. _This thing, or person? Well, she, it, whatever, is an organic cyborg, half flesh, half machine. So technically she is both right?_ 2D thought as he looked at her. _Well, I guess she is half human. She would be "human" if she had more of a free will I suppose. _He stopped his train of thought and decided to answer the cyborg.

"Well, it's not tha' it's _real_ funny, but just ironic I fink." 2D said, "I mean, the fact tha' you can totally act evil when Murdoc tells yah to, but otherwise you ah, well, not. You may call meh 'Dullard', but you don't 'ave the sickening and evil pang in the words. You say 'em like a machine would, which I suppose is good, but it aint _good_ eitha'. Is like yo' soul is missing, or caged somewhere, yah know? But I suppose its bettah' than _Murdoc_ 'cause, you know, he made a deal with a demon you see? So, even though he is like the biggest sodding prick in existence, evil even, an' he made you with tha' _intention _tha' you would be evil you _aint _really evil, but you _still_ have ta' do most everything he says. So tha' kinda made some kinda dark humor for me and I lafed at it."

When 2D finished, Cyborg and him stared at each other for a few seconds in silence and without any expression in either of their faces. Finally Cyborg blinked slowly and nodded in understanding, and then she walked away from him closing the metallic submarine hatch that was his door.

2D started at the metallic submarine hatch for a few seconds before he sighed again. It was complicated dealing with her, it, whatever. She was like a rose with thorns. On the one hand, she was the perfect replica of noodle when she was more or less fifteen, which made her in a way, precious to him. She defiantly had a soul too, she had always refused to hurt 2D too badly before, despite everything that Murdoc did to correct that, Cyborg in the worst case scenario would just shut down completely rather than hurt 2D too much. But he knew that even though she looked like noodle, and that she could grow like a normal human being (according to Murdoc), he knew that she had a different personality from the Original Noodle, so in a way that made them something like "blood sisters" or something he supposed.

On the other hand cyborg did do almost everything that Murdoc said, she would insult him, albeit very much with out feeling, and she did seem to keep the wound of Noodle's disappearance open, and she was half machine, and she was trigger happy.

All in all, she made very mixed feelings for 2D, a mixture of relief and pain, as well as one of pity, protection, questioning, repulsion, and a want to keep away from her as well as have her close to him and away from Murdoc. He sighed yet again and began to get ready for practice, pocketing a bottle of painkillers, just in case Murdoc got violent (again). And all the while he was unaware that he had just planted the seeds of awareness and questioning on Cyborg Noodle's mind.

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**Alright, so, that's chapter one. I noticed that when I bought the new CD of Gorillaz "Plastic Beach", on the back of the CD case, you could see Murdoc, 2D, and Noodle. If you look at 2D, he actually DOES have more muscle. You can see his arm muscles are more defined than before, and though you can't see his stomach due to a bucket which blocks the view, you can tell that, by the way his new muscles look, that its toned. Therefore I just came up with the idea that he works out during his captivity.**

**I also tried to include 2D's tendency to see the good in everything and try to be friendly in the chapter, though I honestly don't know how well that showed.**

**Alright people, time to review! Please do send ideas, and please tell me what you think. JJ, I WILL try to include your idea of for 2D, Cyborg, and Noodle, only if you STOP trying to bother me about it! (And because its actually original I suppose. I haven't seen anyone else do it yet.). Dragon is out!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors Note: Alright JJ, so I guess I start here to create the very foundation for you idea. By the way, bear with me this chapter. It might not be that eventful, but it will definitely be necessary for later on.**

**Disclaimer: Same as in chapter one. In fact, is going to be the same for every chapter.**

**P.S: Right, I forgot to mention this but, I am adjusting everyone's age a bit. (I like them all better when they are younger). So, 2D is 29, Noodle is 19 (soon to be 20), Russel 31, Murdoc 40. Its not a big change, but just so you know.**

* * *

**Chapter 2- The Gardener of Thoughts**

Cyborg entered the lift, and pushed the button at the very top of the lift's panel, which would take her to the highest floor on Plastic Beach Mansion, besides the roof's balcony. But even before the lift's door was closed, she was already reviewing in her mind what 2D had said earlier.

For her it was odd, to say the least, to hear those words from anybody. She was told since she can remember what that her purpose was to serve Murdoc, in fact it had even been written for her that "Murdoc = Her Creator = God". She had been taught and programmed to follow his every order unconditionally and to the letter, that her only purpose was to follow his every command regardless of what that command might be, and that she was no more than his creation, and therefore his property, his thing, and thus she was more or less just a tool that did as it was told with out questioning the reason or motive of whatever her orders might be.

Furthermore, she had been also taught and programmed to be more like Murdoc in some aspects, like in her disregard for others pain, or her ability to exploit others weaknesses with little to no guilt. Of course, Murdoc was still superior to her in the aspects of bad attitude, habits, and especially evil tendencies, but nonetheless he had done his best to teach her and upload knowledge into her brain about everything from biology and chemistry, to music and basic cooking, to combat and basic knowledge of feelings and emotions. And of course he had uploaded into her brain some more carnal and mature actions and movements, just in case he should ever have a strong and sudden urge and she was the only thing handy around.

However, even he preferred not to corrupt something so alike to Noodle, whom to him was so much like a niece or perhaps even like the illegitimate daughter he never had. If he had even as tried to corrupt her, it would only add to his large burden of guilt he already carried, which consisted of all of what he had already done to her over the years. If he even corrupted her image in his mind, the burden would only double the burden of his already guilty consciousness. But she had never shown much interest on practicing or involving herself in those more carnal actions with him, so there wasn't a problem as far as he or Cyborg were concerned.

At any rate, given that she her growth had been accelerated to reach the age of sixteen within less than three years, she had had relatively low interaction levels of interaction with any human, even with Murdoc, which of course came with several drawbacks, such as a lack of experiences to draw conclusions from, lack of knowledge of human interaction, and, despite of Murdoc's efforts to upload the information in her brain, incomplete knowledge of even basic emotions. What else could be expected from forcing her to grow sixteen years worth of time in the almost three years of her actual existence?

As a result of this factors, she not only found it odd what 2D had said to her, but also intriguing to her, and as a result she found herself dwelling further into the words and new point of view presented to her by the blue haired singer.

She had not recollection in her memory of ever been told she _wasn't_ evil, in fact she often got told the opposite, that she was almost as evil as her creator, so she had taken that to be the truth, and had already unconsciously labeled herself as evil. And what was even more unusual for her was the fact that he had actually referred to the possibility of her having a soul.

Nobody had ever, _ever_, suggested that possibility before, not even Murdoc. She had never actually wondered if she had a soul or not. Perhaps this was because she had been so busy learning all the information that Murdoc fed her, or perhaps it was the fact that she was always busy attending to him or carrying out his commands, but now that she thought about the question began to make itself more and more intriguing.

On the one hand, she had always been told she was a tool, a thing of Murdoc's. If that was true, then it would make sense that she didn't have a soul since _things_ didn't have souls. She would have about as much soul as a common iron nail then.

On the other hand, she _is_ a Biological Cyborg, and therefore she is half human, and should have some humanity and soul. And the singer _did_ imply it was possible that she did have a soul, and that dullard didn't have any reasons to lie to her as far as she knew.

DING!

At this point her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the lift door's chime, which was followed by a full stop of the lift and the door sliding neatly open. She stepped out of the lift and shook her head in an attempt to shake those thoughts off her mind, which much to her surprise didn't work.

She approached the couch and sat down on its high quality leather, she glanced in her mind at her internal watch. 2:13:25 PM. She still had 26 minutes and 35 seconds to wait for the practice to officially begin. She decided to process the question further to pass the time.

23 minutes and 23seconds later

She had been giving the question in her turns and turns, pondering it from many different angles, but she still was stuck in the same place she was when she began. By this point Cyborg was actually beginning to get annoyed with the question, she was so used to processing and solving difficult mathematical equations within a few seconds, a couple of minutes at most, but never had she spent even a third of the length of time she had spent on this question, making her quite frustrated.

After a few more seconds she decided it would be best to consult the two experts on souls that she had handy, namely Murdoc (the Satanist) and 2D (the soul searcher). If anyone could help her it would be those two.

She stood up and took a couple of steps towards the only set of large double doors in the room, which lead towards recording studio. She entered the recording studio with still a couple of minutes to spare. She found Murdoc, arguing with someone over the phone, and caught only the end of the conversation.

"…and yew betta' get it right you BLEEDING SOD! Or else yew will find out why no one messes wiff ME!" Murdoc said with viciousness, before hanging up the phone with a slam that made the table shake a bit.

He grunted with satisfaction and turned to find an expressionless Cyborg facing him from across the Recording studio. He acknowledged her with a grunt and turned to get one of his precious bass guitars.

"Master Murdoc?" Cyborg Noodle asked neutrally, earning her a grunt from Murdoc as he turned to face her with his bass guitar. "I have a question, and I was hoping you could clarify for me then answer."

He arched an eyebrow at this; after all it wasn't often that Cyborg had a question about anything other than his orders. And she had received no orders today, which meant she had been thinking, and quite honestly, he wasn't sure how much she could think on her own.

"Well, whot is it then?" He asked with curiosity.

"Master Murdoc, do I have a soul?" She asked with a slightly curiosity in her voice.

Murdoc froze for a second, caught off guard by the question. He composed himself quickly and gave Cyborg a questioning look before he began to speak.

"Well, whot do _yew_ think eh? How the bloody hell am _I_ supposed ta know, eh? Yew _could_ just _maybe _have one, but ta be 'onest with yah I haven't seen much proof of it. I'm no bleeding soul searcha', I know were souls go, and that but I 'ave no clue how to search for one. If I did don't cha think I would 'ave found Noodle? Now if tha's all, get rid of those thoughts for now and get ready for practice. The Dullard should be here any minute now." Murdoc concluded.

Cyborg was slightly disappointed at the answer, it was neither long nor explanatory, so it hadn't gotten her far. However, she still saved the brief conversation in her memory, in case it could be of us later on. With that she began to ready for practice, and seconds later 2D walked in the room and the long practice session began.

They concluded band practice after a good three hours, and before departing Murdoc allowed 2D to go out for a walk on beach, and told Cyborg to make diner in three hours.

"If yah try to escape the whale will go afta' yew." Were Murdoc's last words to 2D before he pompously walked off to take a nap, his usual hard tequila bottle already in his hand.

2D grinned like a kid that had just been given a puppy for Christmas and dashed outside without a word. Cyborg, on the other hand just went to her charging station and charged herself up for about an hour, before she decided to go in search of her second sours of information: 2D

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Some of the trees on Plastic Beach were real, others were just plastic, but either way 2D thought it made Plastic Beach feel a bit more welcoming. 2D had walked around for a while, and now he was on the end of the island opposite to the entrance, where there was less junk and debris and more small rocks and even some sand on some secret places along the beach.

2D walked up to one of the new trees of Plastic Beach and observed it for a moment. It was a big plastic oak tree, with lots of hooks, nooks, holds, and branches but they were far apart in some cases, but even so, it would be easy to climb for someone of his height.

He tried to recall why Murdoc had gotten a few more trees for Plastic Beach, so he closed his eyes and contorted his face with concentration. After a good ten minutes he remembered why: Murdoc had added a just few more trees to Plastic Beach since their last pirate attack to provide the residents of Plastic Beach with some extra cover, just in case of an other massive attack like the last one. The last attack was so large that even 2D was forced to take part in the defense of Plastic Beach.

He shuddered slightly at the memory. He didn't enjoy been shot at, especially by un-dead supernatural trigger-happy barbaric pirates which cruised the oceans in a ghost ship, in this case known as the Glitter Freeze. And he especially disliked it when those same pirates brought with them their friends the Pirate Jets, which where almost the same as the Glitter Freeze Pirates, only that they had WWI and WWII airplanes to shoot people with instead of guns and cannons.

2D actually _preferred _the zombies of KONG studios to these guys. They might smell just as bad, but they didn't use guns, or cannons, or fighter jets, or creepy old ghost ships. Oh how he missed KONG, the zombies, the videogames, the graveyard…_How he missed her. _He winced and forced his mind to cut himself off there, and finally shook the memory off.

Even though he still believed that she was alive, it still hurt that he hadn't been able to see since she was 16. _She should be turning twenty soon._ 2D thought to himself sadly. He had missed three of her birthdays already, and the sadness deepened when he thought that she had missed what could have been some of the best years of her young life.

Again he shook off the thoughts, but not before making a mental note to pray extra hard for her for the days following up to her birthday, and began to climb the massive plastic oak tree.

He climbed the tree easily, albeit clumsily, but he had no trouble lifting himself up the branches. It didn't take him long to reach a height of maybe ten meters or so from the ground, at which point he found a very large and comfortable looking set of tree branches which faced the ocean right above him.

Eagerly he climbed around the tree until he was near the set of thick branches. The whole sides of the branches seemed to be covered by a four feet tall mass of branches, which to him seemed very intriguing for some reason, unknown even to him. He touched the cool surface of the fake tree, and pulled himself up an other branch so that he was right besides the odd looking mass of branches, his head looking over the edge of the mass of leaves. 2D was instantly surprised by what he found.

Murdoc had obviously not checked the top of the tree, since if he had, he would have noticed that what actually seemed like a thick set of branches and leaves that protruded from the trunk of the tree from the bellow was actually more like a big, flat, level, and almost rectangular, floor on the top, easily wide enough so that 2D could lay across it, and at least ten feet in length.

He looked up, wondering why Murdoc hadn't seen this defect from the Mansion, only to quickly find out the reason. The platform was covered from view by a large mass of finer branches and leaves of much higher quality than the ones that were in the larger middle section of the tree. And the platform was also well covered from the sides.

_So, _2D thought. _Unless you either climb the tree, or you know this place is here, or you can track a person who is up here with exact precision you would never find this place._ His mind was silent for a minute as he pulled himself over the thick mass of leaves that surrounded all of the edge of the platform, which were attached to just a lump of plastic.

_Yep, Murdoc definitely got scammed._ 2D thought with amusement in his head, as he finally pulled himself into the platform completely. Then something clicked in his brain that made him smile like a little boy on Christmas morning. Nobody knew about this place but him! It could be his secret, his hiding spot!

He stood up and looked around the platform, and discovered that it was actually an ideal hiding spot for spying at things or for shooting at things without ever been detected. He looked around the platform proudly, and decided that it would only be appropriate to name his base. He dug out from his pocket his old trusty flick knife and carved in the trunk of the tree "2D's Oak Base: The Gull's Nest".

Satisfied with his work, he sighed and laid down and looked at the beach bellow him. This beach looked so peaceful. So perfect in its deception. He would almost hate to leave it right now.

Then another thought slipped into his mind. How many other secrete spots were there here in Plastic Beach still undiscovered? How many potential hiding spots from Murdoc, Pirates, and even that bloody Whale were there? The thought made him giddy with excitement at the thought of discovering new secrete locations. It would at least give him something to do during his time of freedom.

He hurriedly rushed down the tree and began his scan of the island. The Gull's Nest was exactly to the north of Plastic Beach, so he headed to the west, towards the pier and Big Rick's Music Shack. He attentively searched in his way there, spending a half an hour with out any success, when he spotted a weird shadow in the face of the pink cliff that supported the Plastic Beach Mansion and at the same time was part of the Mansion.

He was about to move towards it, when he heard Cyborg calling him.

"Hey Dullard!" She shouted after him. He turned around to find Cyborg in her usual semi-military uniform heading towards him, her beloved riffle hung on her back.

He stopped completely, for a moment afraid that she had discovered of his secrete hiding spot, or what he was doing, or worse, that he might have broken some rule unknown to him and would be sent to Murdoc for punishment, better known as torture.

He was frozen on the spot while Cyborg Noodle had walked up to him. When she reached him, she looked at him briefly from head to toe, seemingly in a pensive mood. Then, after she seemed to come to a conclusion, she began speaking.

"Hey Dulla-, I mean, 2D," She quickly corrected her self. Better not insult the person to whom she was about to ask for advice. "I was wondering if you could help me out with something."

2D just stood there, frozen for a minute due to his surprise, his thoughts racing._ Wait, what? Did she just NOT call me a Dullard? And she is asking ME for help?_ He shook those thoughts off mentally and finally regained control of his body.

He fidgeted with his hand for a moment, trying to figure out what to do. After a few more seconds of arguing with himself in his brain, he succumbed to his curiosity and answered the patiently waiting Cyborg.

"Ah, me? _Yew_ want _me_ ta' help yah?" He asked with caution, and received a short confirmation nod from Cyborg. He fidgeted with his fingers again for a moment and then answered.

"Well, I suppose if yew want me ta help, then I guess I can. Wha' do yew need help wiff?" He asked.

This time it Cyborg who hesitated for a moment and 2D who waited for the reply. Even though she knew that there was little to no risk with trusting 2D since he was too good a person to intentionally hurt anybody, she still hesitated to talk to anyone except Murdoc, her creator, about such a delicate and personal matter.

She quickly regained her composure reassuring herself that this was necessary and began. "Eh, 2D, what do you know about souls?"

He blinked at this. This was certainly _not_ what he had expected, especially from Cyborg of all things.

"Well, what do yew mean?" He asked with curiosity.

"Well, lets see. Lets start with, what have you done through out your life that is, you know soul related, like religion?" she asked, trying to pave the way to her actual question while gaining some sort of indicator towards his knowledge on the subject.

"Oh well, that one is easy." He answered with a smile. "Well, I was a Protestant, then I became Jewish, then Buddhist, and now I'm a Christian, a Roman Catholic Christian to be exact. I studied all of 'em 'cause I fink its important ta' understand yor' religion, and I think I'm gonna stick with this one. You know, it's the one that I find works the best against Murdoc and all that bloody crap that follows him around, plus I fink it fits meh the best."

She nodded at this. It made sense, and it also meant that he had been doing quite a bit of research and stuff on this soul thing. _That's good, he may actually know something then._

"Alright, that's good. Now here is what I really need help with." She began, looking at him seriously in the eyes, "I want to know if I have a soul."

2D just stared at her for a moment, but this time his mind went into over drive._ She wants to know if she has a soul? From were in the name of bleeding hell's bells did that come from? What does she want to hear? What do I say? Would she shoot me if I don't tell her what she wants to hear? Why does she want to know? Why is she asking me this? Oh bugger it all! _After a few more seconds he managed to calm his mind down enough to think clearly, he decided he might as well tell her what he knew and what he thought. What else could he do?

He looked at her, and realized that she was, very unexpectedly, looking at him with wondering eyes, and even though the rest of her face was as expressionless as stone, he could tell that in those eyes there was something that seemed to be reaching out, but he wasn't sure what it was. He searched her eyes more and it seemed like a dim spark. But one thing was for sure, and that was that it was a sort of spark that wasn't the electronic spark that could be produced by a machine.

He searched her eyes of jade for a couple of more seconds, during which time she was so still that she might as well have been a rock. She never knew why she did that then, why she looked at him unblinkingly, frozen as if in a trance by his eyes, as he searched into her own eyes. And she would forever remember this moment as the moment she began to feel.

As he looked into her eyes, she felt something that was unknown to her. It wasn't physical pain, which she could feel, but to a lesser degree than that of the average human, but it wasn't what she supposed was known as hate or anger. _No, it feels more like…_ She searched her memories and data, trying to find the right words and definitions that would fit the words._ …It feels like… excitement? And… and something else, but to a lesser degree… fear? _Her mind gasped in surprise. She was in awe and shock at these new feelings, which would have caused her to freeze, if she wasn't already frozen in place.

He finally, after what felt like an eternity and brief moment simultaneously to Cyborg, closed his eyes and sat down in the sat cross-legged. _There was something in those eyes. Those eyes that are so much like Noodles, but different none the less._ Cyborg, unsure of what to do, copied 2D sitting in front of him.

He sighed and opened his eyes and looked at her. "Look, Cyborg, here is tha' fing. I am no God, I am no Jesus or Buddha even, so I cant really tell yew for sure that yew have a soul right on the spot." Her face fell slightly in disappointment.

"But…" She immediately looked at him again, straight into his eyes.

"But… Here is 'ow I see it. Yew are a literally a cyborg made from my little luv' and very high tech machines right? So, yew are half human right? So don't it make sense tha' yew at least have half a chance of having a soul?"

She thought a bout it for a moment, and nodded slowly.

"Well, people are a lot more stubborn than yew would fink, so I would say tha' yew have_ more_ than half a chance. But, the fing is tha' I fink _yew_ are…caged so to speak. Like you have never _notice_ or_ considered _your soul. Also, do yew fink you have a soul? 'cause, part of having a soul is the _belief_ that you have one, it helps support your soul, it makes it stronger. Faith, Love, Passion, and Belief are a few of the things that make yewr' soul stronger yah know? So I _fink_ that yew _do_ have a soul, yew just don't know how to express it."

She just stared at him for a moment with a blank look on her face, which made him feel really awkward for a minute. Thinking that he hadn't expressed himself well, he was about to try to re-explain his thoughts when Cyborg began to nod slowly.

If she had had to describe her feelings at the moment, she would have probably said it was similar to feeling overwhelmed and at the same time excited. Her mind was working furiously to save the whole conversation with 2D for further reference, and at the same time she was soaking in the words that 2D had offered her.

She now stood up slowly and nodded again, but this time resolutely, at 2D as he started to stand up like her. -_Amazing.-_ She mused. -_2D was actually more useful and knowledgeable than Master Murdoc for once._- She dusted her short shorts and directed herself to 2D.

"2D?" She said.

"Mm-hm?" He responded as he dusted his own pants and shirt.

"Thanks for…. Helping me." She said somewhat awkwardly.

"No problem. I'm used to it. Yew'd be surprised at 'ow much I had ta' do it for Noodle and even sometimes Russel. In fact even Murdoc has done it once or twice I fink… Its like I'm a spiritual guide or a stress unloader or somefink. Or maybe its more like a I can listen and give suggestions? I dunno, I try not ta' think about it, since the last time when Russel commented on it. I think he called me a gardener of thoughts or somefink at one point. Anyways, we discussed it so much tha' it gave meh a headache. 'onestly, Russ can use some pretty big words yew know? He knows an awful lot more than just drumming." He said, already unconsciously starting to veer off topic.

She was at first surprised by this newly acquired information, but after a moment she reflected upon it and realised it made sense. He was unlikely to over think things, he wasn't quick to judge, he was supportive, he was what people called 'kind hearted', he offered whatever help he could, and he would listen. What else could you ask from a person that you want to seek for talking to about a problem?

She nodded again, turned to leave. But she stopped for a minute to telling that dinner would be in an hour and a half.

"Alright, thanks Cyborg." He said stretching himself out.

Cyborg walked away then, heading back towards the Plastic Beach Mansion, thinking along the way about 2D's words.

-_It's hard to figure out that 2D. He isn't very bright some times, I thought all his real skills are tinkering with mechanical bits and pieces for his instruments, singing, and writing music. But I guess I am adding pondering about the universe and listening and helping out to the list. So is he a genius or is he stupid or just plain very odd?... I think Russel got it right when he called him a "Gardener of Thoughts". He can certainly has a way with words and ideas. He can make you think so easily, make you believe or despair... God, what a dangerous talent he has.- _She chuckled slightly at that thought. It was very weird thinking seriously of 2D as 'dangerous'.-_ Yes, Russel got it right. Gardener of thoughts indeed.-_

And with that, she postponed her thoughts on the matter for the time been, and began to think what she should make for dinner as she entered the Mansion's main entrance.

* * *

**Alright then! Huzza! I finally finished ze chapteg! I sincerily thank the 3 people that have reviewed me so far, you guys are amazing.**

**Sorry for the uneventful chapter, but I need to lay a foundation for upcoming chapters, otherwise everyone would get lost.**

**So, yeah, Hoped you enjoyed it. Though I don't like it all that much. Let me know what you guys think. Please review, again, ideas are welcomed.**


	3. Chapter 3

Right, Guess who's Back? Yes I'm Back! Alright people, Quick thing here!

So, 2D has gained a few hours of liberty from his confinement every second day from Murdoc. The reason for this is because Murdoc fears that he may become sick if he stays in his room with so little fresh air, and that in turn might damage his vocal chords.

Last thing, hey JJ! I'll start the idea as soon as I can. So you just wait until then.

Cool, alright, that said, let the story commence!

Chapter 3- The Lost Members

Murdoc

Murdoc sat in his favourite reclining chair, a large black leather chair with large cup holders on both arm rests, as he finished drawing up some plans for the Plastic Beach Mansion for the day. He set his pen down, and stretched his back before giving a relieved sigh and slumping down further into his chair. He grabbed the bottle of rum he had placed in the left cup holder and drank the last quarter of the bottle in one go.

"Damn..." He said, "Empty again… OY! CYBORG! GIT OVA' HERE!"

He waited for a few seconds, expecting Cyborg to reaper behind him at any second… Which didn't occur, and so after a minute he called for her again, this time getting an slightly startled response from behind him.

"Mmm?...Oh, pardon me Master Murdoc. I was distracted." Cyborg answered him

"Yeah, yeah. Whateva'. Cyborg, bring me anotha' bottle of Rum…With a glass of Ice. And don't yew pull that crap of Global Ice setting again. It took me a week to fix that glitch." He warned her, wagging an accusing finger at her.

"Yes Master Murdoc." She said with an obedient, but somewhat distant voice, and left to carry out her creator's wish.

By the time she had left Murdoc was already lost in his own thoughts. _Funny, she has been getting more… Distant. Less responsive to my orders even. _He lifted his green left had and scratched a spot on his impish jaw lazily. _Damn. Could it be she is finally developing her own personality?... It should still take her longer… at the very least another two or three years. But those are the signs she is showing though… Less responsive to orders, slight demonstrations of feelings, more fluent with expressions, more talkative, and, finally, that spark behind her eyes seems to be… expanding and growing brighter too._

He paused for a second and looked around the room in the darkening light of the blood red sunset, drinking in the view of the room: the shrunken heads hanging on the wall, the captains' wall, the juke box, and even the mutant octopus he had on his desk. _What could have sped up the process? What could possibly speed up the release of her soul and the evolving of her personality so dramatically that it was two years ahead of schedule, if not more? I mean, I knew it would come some day, and I already decided to let it happen in honour of Noodle… But its going to be a damn shame loosing my free waitress and body guard. _He began to think back to when this had started with her, and he thought hard.

_Was it a week ago? … Nah, it was before that. That's when I really started the symptoms… Two weeks? No… but getting closer… Three weeks to a month? Yeah… that's when I really started to notice…But what could have happened in that week, during that week, and that has continued up to these days...?-_

His thoughts were suddenly cut short by the return of cyborg, who brought his newly opened bottle of rum.

"Your rum, master Murdoc." She said as she respectfully handed him his precious rum bottle.

"Ah! Cyborg! Good, about time yew showed up, now hand it ova'!" He said eagerly grabbing for the bottle and taking it out of her hands with habitual roughness, and soon he was gulping down the alcohol reach fluid down his throat.

"AAHHH! Beautiful nectar from Heaven! Oh, no, not again, bloody hell! I mean from Hell! Beautiful nectar from hell!" He corrected himself angrily. -_I'll be damned, this is the second time this month!- _And again his thoughts were cut short by cyborg, only this time, it was because of her voice rather than her entrance to the room.

"Ah… Master Murdoc…?" She cleared her throat. Which immediately made him turn to look at her sharply. Clearing her throat was definitely not like her. It was too human. His reaction made her clear her throat yet again in surprise of his actions, but never the less she continued. "Ahem… Master Murdoc… I was wondering if I maybe… excused from the duty of escorting you at the moment. I believe patrolling the grounds would be more advantageous for the beach. Besides, you are deep within the heart of the beach, protected by tons upon tons of metal and plastic. It would be impossible to attack you in here right now."

He studied her for a minute, squinting slightly and looking her up and down, taking her image in. She stood straight as a ruler, but her hands were brought together in front of her. A slight fidget in her fingers as the index fingers and thumbs massaging ever so slightly the back of her hands, that it might have escaped most anyone in the world. But, of course, it wouldn't escape Murdoc.

As soon as he saw this, he redoubled his efforts of inspection, and soon found that her feet were slightly pointing in ward her head slightly down cast, and her eyes didn't quite meet his when he tried to look at her straight in the eye. All of these features were very subtle, almost non existent, but he noticed them. Not only because he knew they should not be there, but also because of his sharp instinct and eyes.

"So… thas' what yew think 'ey"? He said after a minute of heavy silence and study of her.

She looked at him, for a second at a loss for words since she had been expecting a straight out, decisive, and undisputable 'no' for an answer. She quickly recovered, but hesitated a split of second, but then finally responded with a "Yes sir."

"He paused yet again to study her, but this time it was only a few second, and this time he looked only at her face. He saw conviction, but he also saw a hint of hesitation, and a shadow of something else…no, not even a shadow… it was the shadow of a shadow of something… something that he knew, but he couldn't figure it out at the moment even if his life depended on it. In the end, he gave up on trying to figure it out and sighed.

"Alright then Cyborg… Go do your thing. But make sure ta' have Dinner ready by seven yah hear me!" He said sternly, wagging a long green finger at her warningly.

Her face lit up slightly at his answer, which she hadn't really expected. This, of course, was noticed by Murdoc and he made a mental note of it, along with all her other odd behaviour of the last five minutes.

"Yes Master Murdoc. Thank you. And don't worry; I'll have the dinner ready in three hours like you wish." And with that, she was quickly gone fro the mansion and entered the grounds of Plastic Beach.

_-There it was again!-_Murdoc thought to himself as he watched her leave-_ But this time it was stronger. She definitely is accelerating in her development of her humanity. But how? I am sure now that my estimate wasn't to far into the future, she is actually more like two years and a half, perhaps even three years further into the development than she should be! Hesitation, the hesitation was especially noticeable and that slight happiness that crossed her face... something most definitely occurred to her. But what could it be?-_

He thought about it for a couple of more minutes before finally shrugged it of while mumbling something that sounded like "Soding unplanned factors…Probably some thing to do with Noodle's DNA…again…" and returned to his beloved rum, quickly passing out after drinking the third litter bottle of rum of the day.

Russel

Russel swam across the ocean with determination. How dare he leave him out of the album? Granted, he wasn't exactly out in the open and readily accessible, but still. If it was Murdoc, he could have done it with a bit of work. How dare he make a Cyborg replica of Noodle? How dare he kidnap 2D? This was unacceptable. Those were the thoughts of Russel as his now gigantic body swam across the oceans at a speed that could have easily made ten people water ski behind him.

_Murdoc._ The thought words imprinted themselves in his mind with a mixture of exhilaration and anger. Murdoc, he had concluded a long tie ago, was like a falling double edged sword. Sometimes it would land with the hilt in your hand an help you out tremendously others it would land on the head of your adversary and cleave their skull in half, but others it would land on your foot or cut your arm, or even cut your hand halfway to the bone.

After all, without him he would have never become famous, Gorillaz would have never existed, 2D would still be working at his relatives music shop, Noodle might have never escaped Japan, and they might have never met and become great friends and one of the greatest band of all time.

But without him, 2D would have never lost his eyes, he would have never gone into a comma, become addicted to pain killers, or lost his girlfriend… well the last one was doubtful, but still. And Russel wouldn't have had to fight zombies, or disappear from society to escape all the questions. Not to mention, Noodle wouldn't have had to live in a monster infested home without a regular upbringing, she wouldn't have had to see 2D being beat up and see him suffer, she wouldn't have had to fight zombies and other crap like that daily at KONG studios, and, most importantly of all, she wouldn't have died in the "El Mañana" video.

These thought went around and around in his head. He knew that Noodle's death had not been part of the plan. He knew that Murdoc had helped hi try to fly the chopper to try and save her. But he also knew it was his idea to have her help out with the extermination of the Jimmy bastard, and he knew it was his idea to use that damn island. And so on, the arguments went back and forth in his head.

Suddenly, this thoughts were cut short by a loud explosion that came from in front of him, the currents of the ocean guiding hi towards the place that had emitted such massive noise underwater. He swam faster, curiosity getting the better of him.

He brought his head up from under water for a minute to breath, and looked at the direction from were the noise had come. It didn't take him long to find a trail of smoke coming from the reddening horizon.

_-A ship wreck-? _He thought, _No, that was an explosion. Unless it was a tanker and for some reason it had blown up, that's not likely. What then? An attacked ship?_ The last thought seemed odd, in fact it was almost laughable. But he quickly remembered the many things he had once thought laughable and he had been proved wrong the hard way.

He once upon a time thought spirits and possessing people were just laughable superstitions. He learned the hard way they weren't. He also had thought that zombies, imps, and gargoyles that came to life were ridiculous, but as soon as he entered KONG he discovered that he was dead wrong. He hadn't believed someone could have survived two consecutive accidents such as 2D had with Murdoc at the wheel and survived, but he had found out he was wrong yet again. The list was huge, so he had learned to never dismiss any idea so easily the hard way.

This made him take the idea that a ship had been attacked and that people could be injured seriously. He now swam quickly under water hurrying to the site of the accident.

He arrived hours later, the moon shining proudly in the jewelled sky. He saw several empty floating devices, several pieces of debris and large chunks of railings and of what he assumed was the deck of the ship but no survivors aside for one lone inflatable boat that coined a few people that looked like some of the staff that used to be on board the ship.

Russel rose from the water, his massive head as wide as the large inflatable boat that held the seven people. Naturally, the men inside the craft all shriek and screamed and a few almost considered jumping into the water, when they realised that it would be worthless. The rescue boat was on its way, jumping in the water would only lead to a watery grave.

"Whoa! Chill dudes! I aint gonna it you people!" Russel said with irritation after ten minutes of screaming from the crew. Finally, after sometime, the crew calmed down enough to address the now giant Russel.

"Ya'all need help?" Russel asked in his deep voice.

"N-a-a-a-no thank you mister…er…?" said the bravest of the crew, a man with brown hair and square-ish face that wore a blue vest and a bowtie.

"Russel. Call me Russel."

"Right… ister Russel, don't mind us, as you see we have a radio and we have contacted the authorities, they should be here for us in a matter of hours."

"Alright, but you mind telling me what happened?"

"Ah, of course sir. Well you see, our cruiser ship was attacked by some crazy nutcases flying some airships that resembled jets. We came under attack, so we sounded the alarm and went to all the guest rooms to tell them to escape. Most of them dismissed us as a joke, which sadly ended for them in a watery grave" The mansaid with sadness and sighed before he continued.

"However, there was one girl… This madam from Japanese origin whit a cat mask on her face… She couldn't have been more than five feet tall or so. But anyways, When I arrived to tell her the news, I had just finished telling her that she should get to the life boats, when she calmly walked over to her suitcase and pulls out a machine gun! Dear me, can you imagine my surprise? All I could say as she exited her room and marched towards the deck was 'Oh…Oh Dear…' and of course, sensing that she could buy us some time, I gathered some of her stuff and threw it in a life boat which was near the deck before throwing myself with my mates here into a this much larger life boat."

Russel just blinked unbelievingly and stared at the man. That sounded awfully familiar… "And?" Russel asked. "What happened then?"

"Well," The man continue, encouraged by the interest of the giant before him as well as that of his crew mates. "while I threw her stuff in the other life boat and ran towards this life boat, I saw how she, somehow, shot one of the two attacking jets out of the air! Unfortunately, the second one got scared and dropped some kind on bomb on the ship just as I was about to jump in the boat. Though, I did have time to see the young madam back up and jump the other way towards the direction of her own life boat, thank God! After that, the explosion covered everything up, and we released the boat, so I don't know if the explosion got her or not, but from what I saw, that young madam could most certainly still be alive. Probably anyways."

Russel finished hearing out the man and was silent for a moment. From what the man described, the woman sounded impressive, and it would be a shame to let her die after such a heroic attempt to stave off those jets…

"Alright then." Russel said.

"Pardon sir?"

"I have decided." He said. "I'm going to try to find that young woman and help her out if I can. It would be a shame to let such a hero die without trying to save her."

"Oh, you would do that sir? That would be wonderful! After all, we all owe her our lives."

"Yeah, I think I shall do that." He said and began to turn away fro the small crew.

"Good luck sir Russel! I shall be praying for you and the young madam! We all will!" The staff member called after him, receiving approving nods and responses from all the other staff members.

"Right then. Thanks to you all then."

_-Heh, it seems I wont have to veer off to much from my original course.-_ He thought, taking out a water-proof compass from his pocket, which looked tiny in his gargantuan with that, Russel dove into the water and followed the currents he suspect would carry the small life raft that held the small heroic woman.

Noodle

She awoke in the life boat, at first disoriented, but quickly recalled the events of the last evening.

_-Oh, right, the jets, the ship sunk, and I somehow made it to the life boat….How did I make it?-_ She thought to her self.

Then she recalled it.

**-Flashback-**

Somehow, during her escape she had been hearing in the back of her mind a soft unknown tune, which, as soft as it was, was definitely there. She had taken one of those jets down, but the other had dropped a bomb. She had tried to jump for a small life boat, but the explosion had sent her flying and torn the life boat from its ropes.

She had then landed in the water, battered and half breathless…and she was sinking…the soft caressing of the water and the weightless feeling making her sleepy…But that tune! That haunting yet beautiful tune! It grew, denying her the blissful sleep she so craved. And quickly it grew, it became more tangible, more understandable. A set of keyboards became defined, skilful fingers played it with an outstanding accuracy, soul, innocence, hurt, and grace. The melody seemed simple at first, but so complex and with a deep emotional level.

Words began to make themselves out, a soft but tender male voice began to make itself out, ever so beautiful and full of passion and feeling, carrying the very weight of the soul of its owner. The voice became more defined, the heavenly voice now starting to create words from the previous beautifully incoherent noise.

Up on Melancholy hill

There is a plastic tree

Are you Here with me…

_-Just like a choir of angels…- _She thought.

…Just looking out for the day

Of an other Dream…

–_Just like… 2D!-_ And that did it. As soon as she thought his name, she snapped back to reality, and she gained sudden energy in her limbs. The music disappeared and she swam up wards powerfully, her lung burning. She swam towards an oval like shadow that was right above her. Probably her life boat.

Her hand finally broke through the water, grabbing for the oval object, which as it turns out was her life boat. Her second hand quickly follows the first, and she hauls her self up, her head finally surfacing from the water, gasping for air

_-God damn… -_ She thinks as she finishes pulling her self over the edge of the inflatable raft. _–That was close. WAY too close…Saved again by 2D…-_

And the last thing she recalls was finally pulling herself out of the warm ocean water and flipping on to her back and falling a sleep.

**-End of Flashback-**

-_Well, damn. No wonder I am tiered. Well, who wouldn't be? I escaped that place less than a month ago! AND I haven't had any proper food until just when I got on that ship too.- _She thinks to herself, unmoving from the position she had gone to sleep in and had woken up in: flat on her back, facing the sky. She judges it to be around 10 in the morning by the suns position. She then relaxes, the waves are calm, the wind is soft, and there are no sinister looking clouds around. Her mind clears and she just stares at the beautiful blue sky. And for a moment, everything is fine.

A few minutes pass by during which the only source of sound is the swishing of the ocean waves. And finally a thought surfaces her mind.

_-How am I going to find Plastic Beach now before I die? I guess I am in the right Ocean, and about half way there, but it will take weeks if not months for the ocean currents to drag me to Plastic Beach. I don't even have a radio to call for help… and what was that song anyways? I've never heard it before, so wh…?-_

She quickly cuts herself of as she feels an unnatural movement in the raft. _–What the… I'm moving… up?- _and with that ,she quickly sits up and looks around. _–There is nothing around me so what can be…!-_ Finally something clicks in her mind, and she quickly peers over the edge of the inflatable raft. She is definitely raising. And something like a big brown dome is what's raising her!

For a moment she is disoriented, even doctor Kuso, her mentor and trainer for being one of the most elite warriors on earth, had never trained her on how to deal with giant brown rising dome fro under water that elevated her several dozens of feet over the water level while she was basically weapon-less!

But quickly she begins to notice something, the dome is attached to an other platform which is covered by….cloths? Suddenly something clicks.

_-Hold it, this isn't a dome… it looks like… a person? No, a giant!-_She finally realises. Having lived the majority of her life in KONG and in a secret military facility and the last three years in some alternate dimension between heaven and hell, she isn't surprised that giants exist, but that doesn't mean she knows exactly what to do either.

She then walks over to the front of the raft and looks over the railing of the raft, her head hanging bellow the floor of the raft and staring at the large forehead of the brown skinned giant.

"HEY YOU!" She yells at it, which makes the giant turn his head to his left and then to his right, searching for the source the noise, forcing Noodle to hand on to the raft with both hands to avoid falling off.

"WHOA! Don't do that! I'm right up here! On your head!" She yells at him, her Japanese accent becoming a bit more pronounced due to her surprise at the giants sudden movements. He stops and turns his eyes to look upwards and catches sight of Noodle.

"Whatcha doin' up there girl?" The giant asks with amusement, as he reaches for the raft, putting it in hi palm and pulling it down to his eye level.

"So, you are the hero of that sunken boat huh?" Russel said.

"Wait how did you know? Who are-?" She cuts her self of as she suddenly get a good look at the giant. She pauses for a moment, frozen in disbelief, and in the mean time, the giant takes a good look at her. She was wearing a mostly white dress with some red pockets, matching stripped stockings, some white elbow length white gloves, and a Japanese cat mask. Choppy and spiky purple-blue hair protruded her head, parts of it reaching halfway to her shoulders. She looked skinny, a bit boney even, probably from lack of eating properly; however she had some curves despite her sorry state, so she was definitely over seventeen.

-_What a pity. She could be very beautiful is she had proper food… and shower.-_ He thought to himself.

"I-I-I know you!" She exclaimed when she regained her ability to speak. "I-I-Is that… Is that you Russ? Yes it is! RUSSEL!" She screamed his name in joy, and immediately stood up and began to jump happily up and down, before collapsing to her knees an looking up at him through her mask, tears visibly falling from behind her mask as they ran down her cheeks and chin and onto the rafts floor.

"Wait, wait, wait. How do you know me? How do you…." Then it was Russel's turn to become speechless. He looked at her again. She was small, Japanese, she had an old Les Paul in her raft and an acoustic guitar too. Her hair was purple-blue, leaning slightly more towards blue, her skin was pale, the accent all to familiar, the story about her amazing skills against those jets, and the familiarity of her voice…it couldn't be… could it? Nah, it was impossible!... but…then again… ,any ties had he been proved wrong about things he thought were imposible…

"N-N-N-Noodle?" He asked shakily and uncertainly, half expecting she would get insulted and say that that wasn't her name.

She still was looking up at him, still crying slightly, but never the less she gave him a nod. This almost made him drop her and raft in surprise and relief, but quickly caught himself before he actually dropped them. A great tear escaped his left eye and he let it run the whole length of his cheek and fall into the ocean.

"Oh, Noodle! I missed you so much! Baby girl, I thought you were dead! How, no When, wait where…?" He stopped himself from blabbering nonsense, took a deep breath and started again "I missed you Baby girl. But we thought you was dead! All of us, hell the whole world thought you were dead!"

"Everybody?" She whispered.

"Well, everybody but 2D. You know how he is. He never, ever, gave in to believing you were dead. I wouldn't be surprised if he would wait for you until he was on his death bed and still say firmly that you were alive. He kept saying he _knew_ you were alive, that he could _feel _it." He answered her truthfully in a respectful voice.

She felt suddenly both drain and greatly relieved. At least _he_ had still hoped. A happy sigh escaped her lips as she crossed her legs, and sat down in a more comfortable position. She felt the tears begin to slow down and finally stop after a couple of minutes. She was finally back with the man that had acted as her father for most of her life. She had gotten back a part of her home.

"Russel-sama, how did you get so big? Where are we going, what has been going on in all these time that I was gone? How is 2D? I want to know EVRYTHING!" she said in a rush. She had sooooo much catching up to do.

Russel gave a throaty laugh and set her back on his head. "Well Baby girl, it's a long, long story, but we have time… At least another week or two to get to plastic beach if everything goes perfectly. However you are going to have to tell me what happened to you too. And also why you won't take off that mask."

The last words made noodle go pale behind her mask, those two last things that Russel had said, that she had asked of her, were things she didn't want to talk about. At least not yet.

"Sorry Russel-sama. That's something I can't do yet. Not yet. And if I have to say it, I'd rather say it once to everyone at the same time. Is that okay Russel-sama?" She asked him with a shaky voice.

Russel inspected her very carefully for a second. She could feel the small tremors that coursed through her body in the pal of his hand, and he could certainly hear the slight shake in her voice that might have escaped most people. He could even feel the pleading eyes behind her cat mask. _–She isn't the same as before.-_he thought sadly _–Who knows what she went through, but one thing is for certain, she is now grown up and she is different._

Russel sighed. "Alright Baby girl, if you want it that way, lets do that. After all, you are already an adult right? You can make your own decisions. You are eighteen now, almost nineteen! Oh Baby girl, I have so much to tell you!"

A sigh of relief escaped Noodle and she nodded at Russel. And now he noticed an other change in Noodle; she was much more quiet than the happy bubbly child he used to know, but he pushed that thought aside, and basked in the joy of having his baby girl back.

He placed the raft back on his head, lowered himself back into the water and began to swim while keeping his head up to talk to Noodle, and they conversed until nightfall, catching up with each other as they made their way to their other two band members.

2D

2D was sprawled out in his bed again, the curtains of his underwater window tightly shut. He stared at the ceiling of his room, yet not really seeing it as his mind wandered around aimlessly inside his head. His mind finally settled on a random memory and played it back for him, like a movie of exquisite quality.

**-Flashback, a week ago.-**

2D had been watching one of his many movies on the old TV in his room, when he was interrupted by a loud knock on the door. Immediately he tensed up and turned of the TV and DVD player with a click of the remote control.

"Who is it?" He asked cautiously. He had learned the hard way that opening the door with out asking could lead reveal a very angry and very drunk Murdoc who was looking to vent his anger on him violently.

"Me," A voice like Noodle's but without the Japanese accent responded. "I have a message from master Murdoc… May I come in?"

2D instantly relaxed. It wasn't Murdoc. But it surprised him that she asked for permission to enter his room. It was the first time she had ever asked instead of just walking in. "Yeah, 'course you can Cyborg." He answered.

Cyborg walked in the room and stood in front of him for a moment, giving him time to analyse her once again. She was so much like the Noodle he loved… But yet so… _different._ –_It's like they are twin sisters or something.-_ He thought once again.

"Master Murdoc wishes you to go to the recording studio. We are about to re-record the track for 'Melancholy Hill' 2D"

"Wha…? When did we even film it?"

"Remember when you first came up with it?"

"Yeah…It was after tha' car chase right? When you shot the lights of the police car and Bruce was chasing us and we fell on the ocean, right?"

Cyborg actually blushed slightly, ever so softly it might have gone unnoticed by even Murdoc. But of course 2D caught it, but dismissed it as she began to talk again.

"Yes, it was during that you first sang out those words, an the cameras we had on the cars which were going to be used as a trial run later on caught it. Master Murdoc decided that was perfect for the video of Stylo. After that you and Master Murdoc fixed me and we arrived back to plastic beach in the Stylo shark-like submarine. During that time you came up with and sang a new song, now called Melancholy Hill, and again the cameras inside and outside the submarine caught it. Master Murdoc has now decided that that footage is perfect for the Melancholy Hill music video, but the sound is not that good Because the cameras were near the engine and loud machinery of the submarine. So Master Murdoc wishes you to re sing it again to save that sound and replace the old sound of the footage."

"Oh…okay." He answered after Cyborg finished her detailed explanation. He stood up and followed her out of his room, stepping into the lit hallway which momentarily blinded him.

Once the two of them arrived to the studio, they found Murdoc playing 'double bass' in his flying V bass guitar with a small grin in his face. Probably remembering the good times when the entire band was together, Hell still hadn't made its move, Girls flocked to him easily, and he still had his Winnebago trailer home. He really missed that old thing.

"Ahem," Cyborg cleared her throat, "Master Murdoc? I have retrieved 2D from his bedroom."

Murdoc quickly ended the song and looked up at the two new figures that had entered the room.

"About time too." He half growled, "Oy, face-ache! Yew know tha' song yew' came up with? Melancholy Hill? Well, I need yew to sing it again for me so I can put it on tha video. And I want yew ta sing it with passion, you hear?"

"Alright Murdoc, but do I get to go out afta this?" 2D asked innocently.

"Only AFTER yew finish this face–ache, and not a moment earlier." Murdoc said with a tone in his voice that left no room for argument. And so began the long recording session.

**-Nearly two hours later-**

…Does any body know though…-

"CUT! CUT! CUT! FACE-AAAACHE! What was that?" Screamed Murdoc with anger from the intercom outside the soundproofed room were 2D was attempting to record his song, "Yew soding blue haired buffoon! Remember what I said? I said that it had ta' have _passion!_ You have ta put _heart _ INTO the song. And most importantly, you have ta' put _SOUL _into it! Yew are singing it pretty but there is none of those! How am I supposed ta' have the ultimate band if the best singer in the world, and that's _yew_ 2D, don't sing like the best singer in the world!"

2D cringed back slightly from Murdoc. Even though now they were much more evenly matched in a fight, no, in fact if he really applied himself he could probably take out Murdoc with his now remodelled body, his gentle and innocent nature made him still cringe at Murdoc's Furious screams and evil looks. Heck, even most body builders would think twice before having a go at him.

"Aw, sorry Murdoc, but I just can't do it right now… I have no motivation. No goal, no were to direct my _passion,_ I just don't think I can today." 2D said with a sad tone lining his voice.

"Well you bloody better git' something to draw it out and it betta' be quick!" Murdoc snarled, looking at the singer across the glass window. He cursed when he saw that the singer looked somewhat lost at his words, and thought quickly. Suddenly he had an idea, and a smile crossed his face. It was a smile of pure brilliance combined with the smile of a man who was about to get what he wanted.

_-Yeah, Yeeeah…-_ Murdoc thought, _- That might just work… and if all goes well, It just might help me gauge the degree of Cyborg's accelerated Soul release. Hell, it might even confirm my theory that it's the that Dullard's fault that she has accelerated so much.-_

"Oy! Face-ache!" Murdoc called at 2D, "How about this eh? Sing to Noodle yeh? Sing to Noodle this one song, yew were thinking about her when you sang it the first time right?"

Those words caught 2D completely off guard, his black eyes widening and turning a milky white as they did sometimes when he felt a sudden shift in emotions or when some large enough change in the environments aura took place. In this case it was impossible to tell weather which one it was, and it was probably both. In any case, it took not only 2D by surprise, but also Cyborg by surprise, and she was glad she was standing besides Murdoc rather than in front of him so that he couldn't see the bewilderment in her face. However this didn't mean that it had escaped Murdoc.

"Wai…woa, what?" said 2D when he regained his ability to speak.

"Yew heard me Dullard, now do it." Murdoc ordered calmly, which surprised both 2D and cyborg once again, but nevertheless 2D did as he was told. He paused for a second and closed his eyes, and concentrated on Noodle. Noodle and hi had a bond that ran deeper than either of them knew, though 2D suspected and could some what grasp the meaning and depth of the connection now after being so long separated from each other, it had been described as a 'Zen' bond, meaning it had a depth to a deep spiritual and psychological level.

And so 2D plunged into the depths of that bond, diving into the connection that they shared between them. And along with himself, he brought along all the feelings of guilt, sadness, regret, faith, joy, and hope he harboured in his mind, heart, and soul about Noodle and her disappearance.

For three full minutes 2D stood as still as a rock, like an impenetrable fortress standing solemn and almost even ethereal. Cyborg was even about to check if he was okay since he seemed to have frozen in time for those three minutes, but was stopped by a wordless hand gesture of Murdoc. She looked turned to look at Murdoc questioningly and was about to ask him what was happening, why she couldn't go check on him, why shouldn't she check on hi, was he okay, was this normal, and several other questions, but when she saw Murdoc's face she just stopped.

She saw Murdoc, for the first time, with the most absolute focus and expectation that could possibly be present in a man's face at the same time. His head rested on his right fist, his body leaning forwards, elbows resting on the control panel, head slightly tilted forwards, his mismatched eyes glistening with expectation and staring at 2D as if he was about to witness the creation of a tree that grew leaves of gold right before him, the muscles of his neck were tense, and he had both feet firmly planted on the floor.

Cyborg had never seen him like this, in all the three years of her existence she had never seen him like this. Not when he was attacked by Zombie pirates, not when he was about to swindle a man out of millions of dollars, not when he found Plastic Beach, not ever. And so Cyborg, for no reason other than Murdoc's appearance, stopped. Her instinct told her she was about to witness something that would be truly amazing, something that might even trespass into the realm of the supernatural and unbelievable.

And then he opened his mouth and placed his finger on his keyboards. 2D had taken exactly three minutes. And it took 2D only those three minutes to get all the passion, heart, and soul anyone could have needed to move the whole world to tears and more. And now, he was about to release all that with an intensity that would have awed even the mountains and rivers.

He was going to singing from his soul, deep from within himself. The only thing he wished was that Noodle could hear this song from the bottom of his heart and everything else that surrounded him faded away.

"Up on Melancholy Hill

There's a Plastic Tree

Are You here with Me…?

Just Looking out on the Day

Of an Other Dream…

Well You can't get what You want

But You can get Me

So lets Set up and See…Girl

'Cause You are My medicine

When You are close to Me…

When You are close to Me…

So Call in the Submarine

'Round the World We'll go

Does any body know though…

If We are looking out on the Day

Of an Other Dream…?

If You can't get what You want

Then You come with ME…

Up on Melancholy Hill

Sits A Manatee…

Just Looking out on the Day

When You are close to Me…

When You are close to Me…

…When You are close to Me…

And then, with his eyes still closed he finished playing the keyboards in a marvellous ending for the song, letting the last note fade away.

2D took in a deep breath as he lifted his head to look at the ceiling, a long sigh escaping his lips. He stood there for a couple of minutes just lost in his own personal thoughts, while behind the thick glass window Murdoc and Noodle stood in awe of him and his voice.

Cyborg's jaw was hanging slightly open, tears flowing freely and strongly from her eyes, her once straight and perfect posture now slightly curved, her hands sagging by he sides. She turned to look at Murdoc, and whatever she was about to say or do was lost from her the moment she saw him.

His muscles now relaxed, the eyes still bright, but, if possible, they seemed sad, the fist that he had curled up where his chin had rested was now a flat palm covering half of his face. But what surprised her the most was the one single tear, which she saw that escaped his eye and ran halfway down his face slowly before he quickly wiped it away.

After she took a few seconds to recover from the shock of seeing Murdoc, one of the most heartless, cold, and calculating men in the whole earth shed a tear, she finally spoke, bringing his attention to her.

"M-M-Master Murdoc…?" She asked shakily, "What are…these?" She said pointing at the overflowing tears that showed no sing of stopping yet.

Murdoc observed her for a minute, slightly shocked to see her cry, but quickly recovered, analysed the situation, and explained to her.

"Ah, those are tears Cyborg."

"I-I understand that M-M-Master Murdoc, but… what are they doing in my face? I wasn't hurt, I wasn't cut, there is no gas that makes you all teary eyed in the room…So why am I crying? I've never cried before… I don't understand… Am I defective? Am I… Broken?" She asked, her voice more steady now, but still shaking, and the tears still running down her face.

"Ahhh, Cyborg... Cyborg, Cyborg, Cyborg… Tears don't only express pain or something wrong with the eyes. They are present with most any extreme emotion; love, fear, sadness, pain, anger, hate, happiness, pleasure, joy, hope… these are all emotions which can stimulate tears if enough of that emotion is present." He stated. "And there is nothing 'Broken' or 'Defective' or 'wrong' with you. Who do you think created you? Of course you are fine. However, I believe that you… that you maybe be releasing your soul. You are becoming more…Human. The synthetic tissue in you is already deteriorating into just as strong biological tissue. You are now more human than machine, and soon you will be mostly human. However, there will always be bits and pieces which might remain synthetic."

Cyborg was shocked yet again. She was becoming _human_...

"S-So… there is nothing wrong with me?"

"Not a thing Cyborg. And the reason you are crying is because of him." He said as he pointed at 2D with his long green finger.

"Him?"

"Yes, Cyborg. Him. 2D."

"But… How? _Why?_"

"Its elementary my dear Cyborg. You have never heard him _TRULY_ sing… THIS is his true potential. Remember when I told you once he could play the keyboards like a horde of Demons and sing like a choir of angels? Well you have seen for yourself that I wasn't exaggerating at all. He sings beautifully when he sings normally. Easily placed in the top ten singers of the world. But when he enters that zone.. when he reaches that level that we just witnessed… The worlds best seem like they are just dust at his feet. When he is like that, he is in a whole league of his own that no other human could hope to match.

Not only that, but his singing and playing each carry his whole Heart, and Soul when he is like that. He could make a mountain cry with happiness I bet. With that singing he didn't just move your heart and stimulated your ears Cyborg, he moved your heart, your soul, your whole _being _shaken, swayed, and moved by him to the very core. Even I was greatly affected by him. He made you feel all emotions that he felt and more. This is his true power and ability. This is why you cried, this is why he is in this band, and this is why he is in light years ahead of any other singer in the whole wide world." Murdoc concluded with all seriousness in the world.

Cyborg took a few seconds to process this information, and slowly nodded, agreeing with what Murdoc had just said. 2D certainly had a fearsome power.

As soon as Murdoc saw she understood, he turned back to the microphone that connected to the speaker on the recording room.

"OY! FACE-ACHE!" Murdoc hollered into the microphone, scaring the wits out off 2D and making him jump a good five feet into the air. "Great job. I think its one of the best ones we've ever recorded. Well, the sun is already almost done setting, so go ahead and half your walk."

2D relaxed and pulled on his trademark grin and exited the recording room. "Tanks Murdoc." Was all he said and he was gone. Later that day Cyborg told him what had occurred outside the recording room word by word, without missing a single detail for the blue haired singer.

**-End of Flashback-**

2D finally finished playing the memory in his mind, and recalled something. When he was singing that song that one time, he felt like he could hear the ocean, feel it too. It was almost as if he himself had been in the water. He recalled a want to be at peace too, but then he had unleashed every single bit of emotion he had within him, and soon there after, the feeling faded along with the feeling of the ocean.

_-What was that all about then?-_ He wondered. _–Well, at least things have gotten better here. Cyborg seems to like me more, and Murdoc beats me up much less often. Maybe if I keep it up I'll be allowed to go search for Noodle and not worry about that bloody whale…-_

And his thoughts faded into darkness as he silently slipped into a restful slumber.

Alright people, that's a wrap! So, quick summary, Cyborg Noodle is developing feelings, and especially towards our Blue haired singer, Russel and Noodle are on their way to Plastic Beach, Murdoc is changing slowly internally, and 2D is just doing his best to work things out and help were he can.

So, J.J. as you, and some of the other readers, might be able to see, there is a plan at motion here. I expect the real plot to be coming up after a few chapters though.

Please review and all that, Peace peoples!


	4. Chapter 4

Hey, Dragon here, so lets keep moving yeh? Thanks to all you awesome people that review!

Cool, so just a heads up: In this story, the Album the Fall wont be made by 2D during their tour in US (Because it will make the story very confusing). However, he is recording it by himself at this point in the story. Also, Gorillaz haven't gone in their world tour yet. That's it. Lets move on to the story.

Chapter 4- Singer of the Soul

**2D**

2D was in his underwater room, playing with his iPad again after a long day exploring the beach. He had found in the last few weeks four secret locations just for himself. The first one, of course, had been the Oak Base of the North: Gull's Nest. The second had been found in the West, it was found on the cliff wall that held plastic beach mansion and it was about a thirty foot climb to reach, but it was nice and cozy inside the cave. It was nothing more than a hole on the wall of the cliff, but the inside was a circular area of maybe fifteen feet in diameter and at its center there was an old, dusty large couch 2D had aptly named it the Rock Base of the Bear's Cave, since he imagined that it was more or less what a bear's cave would look like.

The third place he had been to the South, it was a literally a pile of trash with natural trees growing over it. The small hill of trash was close to the cliff, and in fact it connected to the cliff, and it was covered from the base to its summit by the vegetation that grew around it and on it. It wasn't very tall, standing only maybe twenty or twenty five feet tall if you excluded the height of the trees growing on it. 2D had been exploring it when he found a huge hole on one of the sides of the hill by mistake. The hole had been covered by branches and leaves and when he had tried to lean against the cave's opening the branches gave out and led him into a huge cave, maybe fifty or sixty feet in diameter, with a small pool of water that was of in a corner, probably filtered by the trees and rocks. This dark and large cave 2D named the Wild Base of the Dragon's Cave.

The final spot had been an just another tree on the East of plastic beach, near the pier and Big Rick's Black Record Shack, the only difference with Gull's nest was that this tree seemed more like an elm tree and it was a natural tree. This place had been named the Elm Base of the Pelican's Nest.

2D had been pleased with himself with his findings and had retired to his room due to both, himself been tiered and because his "Out time" was about to be up. So he had returned to his room to play with his iPad. He had been playing with recording features, making his own little songs with out concentrating to much, just letting loose and singing what came to mind.

He had already recorded several like "Revolving doors", and "Little pink plastic Bag" which he had thought were nice, even if he hadn't focused too hard on them. And now he sat in his bed, staring at the iPad, trying to start a new one to add to his collection of tinkered and random self recorded songs.

After a long moment of staring at the iPad void of any feelings, something inside of him clicked. It was similar to what had occurred in the re-recording of the Stylo video, all the feeling he had locked inside of him started to stir, flowing with power from his very being. If anyone, or anything with eyes for that matter, had been observing him at the moment, they would have said that there seemed to be a sort of aura around him that seemed to emanate from him, a soft glowing but slowly intensifying radiance about him that wasn't possible to fully describe. An Aura would have stirred the hearts of those around him.

But he didn't notice, nor did he care at the moment. His mind already revolving around the two bright lights that now dominated his dark world; Noodle and Cyborg.

Suddenly he heard a click and a soft bang. He quickly turned to the door, but saw nothing but a fallen old action figure in the darkness of the room. Paying no mind to it, he quickly returned to his previous mind frame. Absolute silence engulfed the room again, and his thoughts focused on their light, the bright light of cyborg and the brighter one of Noodle.

The room now gave off a feeling of Melancholy and Hope, along with Regret and Desire. Those four feeling were so intense that it seemed that even the whale that watched 2D, which constantly could be either seen or heard around 2D's room, seemed to fall submit to the silence and stillness that 2D's Aura demanded.

He closed his eyes, his finger moved on the iPad, setting it to record and start and adjusting its settings at an alarming speed. Within a minute he had it set to the side of the bed, ready to start recording and he had his customized Casio Keyboard on his lap.

And with a touch of his finger, the recording of his improvised solo symphony began.

"The mountains are all waiting…

The full moon to come…

I got lost on the Highway…

Don't ask were I've been…

Or what I have done…

Oh Lord sent me a transmission…

Forgive me for what I've become…

The sun has come to save me…

Putt a little love into my…

Lonely Soul

The sun has come to save me…

Putt a little love into my…

Lonely Soul

Oh don't you know why

I need their loving do you?

Its no desire."

And with skilful hands, he guided the song to its sweet and uncertain end. And with a sigh he concluded his recording and laid himself to sleep in the cold underwater room that Murdoc had forced him to live in. He rolled on his side to face the door way, and a lonely tear ran down his cheek, and he fell a sleep, unaware that someone had observed his lonely and improvised performance.

Cyborg

Cyborg stayed still as a rock, crouched, peeking into 2D's room through his door which was opened just enough to see 2D's performance. She had been stunned. Once again 2D had shaken her to the very core of her being. She had unconsciously recorded his performance in her important memory files when she realised he was about to sing, but she saw and heard more than she could have possibly imagined.

By now Cyborg had realized that she was developing feelings for 2D, though what those feelings were, she wasn't sure. So she had opted for finding out more about 2D. Today she had decided to talk to him, but when she was about to open the door, she felt something. A strong wave of emotions and pressure which made her stop in opening the door more than the small gap she had already opened it.

Unfortunately, it caused an action figure to fall in 2D's room, but he paid no mind to it, thank God. She crouched down and observed. The first thing she noticed was a feint light illuminated the room slightly in a blue light, however she did not expect to find that it was _him_ who was the source of the light! It was a feint ghostly light, it seemed almost an allusion, something that was but wasn't there at the same time, it was undefined in shape seeming to gather more around his back, chest, and his head than the rest of the body. And it also, for some unknown reason, made her want to cry and hope at the same time.

Her second surprise occurred shortly after wards, when he began to sing and play. This time, like the last time, she cried at his song. She couldn't help it, as much as she tried to force herself to control her emotions and tears, it proved fruitless. She could only cry in awed silence as she heard his song.

And the last surprise of the night for cyborg was what she saw as he went to bed. The pure Melancholy, Hope, Regret, and Desire of the man that she knew was 2D was clear on his face, and in the single tear that he shed that night. This only served to intensify the all her feelings, towards him, towards herself, towards Noodle, and towards the whole world.

The power created by the sheer energy of the emotions that he emanated, combined with the weight of the new emotions she now felt, was tremendous. It was so great, so powerful, that even the stubborn feelings of jealousy that had began to grow in her towards Noodle since a few weeks ago were stamped out and shredded mercilessly within seconds.

At that moment, Cyborg was sure there couldn't be a more melancholic and yet so very hopeful person in the whole world. It was like looking at an angel whose wings had been injured so badly during a fight with a demon that it couldn't fly. It might have defeated the demon, but it couldn't fly. It was caged. And all it could do was sing and play his music until he was healed, hoping he would heal, until he was free, until he could be reunited with the heavens.

For a moment she felt a sudden urge to rush in and comfort 2D however she could. The urge was strong, but she managed to hold it down. This urge was followed by a second urge to runaway, which she also resisted with difficulty.

She felt and thought all this in the fifteen minutes that it took 2D to sing and fall into a deep sleep. It took her another extra five minutes to finally be able to stand up and go to the lift, and another ten to stop crying completely.

She finally entered her cupboard, her room, and connected herself to the charging wires, though Murdoc said she wouldn't need them soon, since she was becoming human and all that.

As she hooked herself up she played the song 2D had just sang over and over in her head, she couldn't get enough of it. It was the most haunting yet beautiful song she had ever heard. The lyrics danced in her mind and his keyboard's notes imprinted themselves in her consciousness.

_-How can any man suffer so much in his life and yet hope with such fantastic strength?-_ She thought, recalling all she knew about 2D and his past.

In particular, there was one thing that sent mixed feelings through her. And that was Noodle. It was very plain that 2D loved her dearly, every account said so; all bibliographies, stories, statements, and emotions demonstrated that beyond any shadow of doubt. But why did 2D keep hoping if everyone else knew she was dead? It only made him suffer more. It also made her feel something like…jealousy to some degree, but she also felt something like hope and exhilaration at the idea of ever meeting Noodle. After all, at some level they were the same, right? Same DNA, and she supposed they both felt attraction for 2D.

_-I wonder what would it be like to meet her in person…?-_ was Cyborg's last thought before she slipped into her slumber.

Murdoc

(three days later)

"Damn it!" Murdoc Growled as he ran a few tests on Cyborg the next morning.

"What is it Mr. Murdoc?" Cyborg asked.

"I'll tell yew whot it is! What's happening is that- wait, yew called me Mr…? Ah, ferget it. Anyways, remember that check I did on you a few weeks ago?"

"Yes Mr. Murdoc."

"Well, I had detected acceleration of not just yor emotions, but also of yor body growth. It seems tha' somehow, your emotions, which are making yew much more human, have also started to make yew and ADULT! Bloody hell in a pig's basket, I mean, I EXPECTED this to happen, and I have NOTICED changes in your body, hell, who wouldn't? But I didn't expect you to advance this much!"

"What do you mean Mr. Murdoc?"

"I mean that I made it so yew were just 16 in appearance up until just a few months ago, yeh? But yor emotions and everything was locked away so to speak yeh? So when the Dullard, yes I KNOW it was the Dullard Cyborg, Unleashed them, and how he did that I'll be damned if I know, they began to develop with an outstanding speed; All of it; your heat, soul, and emotions, to catch p with your body. But it seems that that also caused your body to go somewhot crazy for a while! I've been monitoring your growth every two days fo that reason Cyborg. As it turns out, Yew had a super growth spurt starting a few weeks ago, but it seems that now its starting to slow down, and it should end by the end of the week. BUT by the end of the week yew will be the equivalent of nineteen years old, almost twenty in fact!"

"But Mr. Murdoc, how is that a bad thing? Its even better since I will have better control of my body and I will be stronger and able to protect you and island better. Is that not so?" Cyborg asked confusedly.

"Yes that's true, but that's not the problem!"

"What is it then Mr. Murdoc?"

"The problem is that I hafta buy yew new clothes! Yew haven't grown much height wise, but yor _other_ parts have grown, as in your hips and jugs, I mean, breasts! Do you have any idea how weird its gonna be fo me, Murdoc from Gorillaz, Future King of the World, to go and order _Women's_ underwear, even i_f I did it online?_ Oh heaves help me… Oh damn! Not again, I mean HELL help me... Anyways, that's why!" Murdoc said with irritation.

Cyborg processed that for a minute before nodding in understanding of what Murdoc had said. It was true, she had grown, maybe not so much in height but she had definitely more feminine. In fact, she would have been now an exact replica of the original noodle, if the real Noodle had gotten the proper nutrition up to date. Right now, the real Noodle was rather scrawny, due to the fact that when you are in an alternate dimension where most things don't have a physical body there tends to be little things you could eat.

"Alright then," Murdoc said, "I guess we will order 'em tomorrow."

And with that, he turned off the advanced computer and machinery that he had used to examine and test Cyborg for over an hour with Cyborg's help.

"Right then." Murdoc grunted. "Looks like it's all good now don't it? Great, lets go upstairs then. Get your semi-automatic machine guns from the counter over there and lets go." And without an other word, he turn to the door and went up the steps of his secret evil layer that led all the way up to the study with Cyborg close behind.

Once they reached the top of the stairs, they came up to a wooden wall, which on the other side was a bookcase, at which point Murdoc stopped and searched the wall to his right for a minute before pressing a protruding rock, which caused the wooden wall to move, revealing an archway into the study. They crossed into the study, the secret door closing smoothly behind them.

"…Mr. Murdoc?" Cyborg began, "Why is 2D able to hope with such unearthly strength? Why does he not fall into absolute despair, like everyone else would have done in his place? Why is he not consumed by hopelessness? Why does he not give up? Why is he so…"

"Strong." Murdoc finished for her with a hushed voice.

The single word response startled Cyborg, making her look at him with curiosity and surprise. Never, ever, before had she heard him call the black eyed singer strong; a couple of weeks ago she would have checked him for any deadly virus which he might have contracted that was causing him to say that. Now, however, she just listened and watched attentively.

"…Yes." She responded.

Murdoc sat down on his armchair behind the oak desk were he kept his mutant octopus and leaned back on it, bringing together the tips of the fingers of one hand with the ones of the other, and leaned his head back, looking into the ceiling.

"…That's a good question Cyborg. A very good question… He has suffered my tortures and abuse, two car crashes in which he was hit in the head with enough force to destroy a concrete wall of a foot or two in thickness, if not more, a fall from a tree directly on his head when he was a kid, kidnapping twice by courtesy of me, a piece of his liver stolen by me and I had forgotten to put anaesthetics on him that time." He chuckles at the memory and continues.

"What else, oh yeah; attacks from zombies, imps, and ghouls, forced addiction to painkillers, heart broken at least twice when he really cared for someone and was stabbed on the back by them, and he even survived and he survived the explosion from '_El Mañana_', even though he took most of the blast for noodle, and he is even somehow managing to cope somewhat with his fear of whales. By all standards he should be insane, or at least depressing and hopelessly lost, even more bitter than, perhaps, even me in my darkest times, and yet…He isn't… He could have easily been amongst, hell, he could have been _the _most bitter, depressed, and hopeless person on Earth…"

"…But he isn't." Cyborg said in hushed voice.

"Exactly." Murdoc continued, "Why, or how he is able to do that, or even what causes him to go on like he does… Even I haven't been able to figure it out yet. At first I thought it was because he was simply a Dullard, that he was so stupid that he didn't even register that he was miserable. But after about a year or two of him joining my grand band scheme, I dismissed that because by then he had been cheated on by Paula, betrayed by me, hit with a car in the head going at over 80 kilometres per hour, hit his head on the curb of the road at about that same speed, broken both eyeballs, suffered several zombie attacks, and the loss of two or three family members. The only thing that might have happened that was truly good for him that occurred to him during that first year and a half was the arrival of Noodle, besides joining my band of course.

So after wards I thought it was because he had been taught to always be as happy as he could, but by then he had already experienced more than enough misery to break any habit like that. Then, later I figured that it was because he always saw the bright side of things. I also dismissed that quickly, immediately after the '_El Mañana_' actually, for obvious reasons. So I have no clue what keeps him going. It's surreal, honestly. It's one of the most damn amazing things I have ever seen….And you know, now that I think about it, he is the weirdest one in the band, even compared to me, and that's saying something. Hell, I remember that the demons wouldn't ever go into his room for some reason too. I guess that's part of why Noodle always went there when she was scared, huh. Ah, sodding hell. The bottom line is that even I don't know Cyborg. Why did you even bring that up?"

"…Here Mr. Murdoc, I will show you this new song he was just singing out of the blue. He hadn't practiced or anything. He just… sang." And with that, Cyborg Noodle walked over to the jukebox music player, opened the CD reader and placed in it the CD that she had burned from her memories. Within seconds the song began to play out, with the same intensity as when she had heard it, though without the visual effect of 2D in his dark room, but that she wouldn't only show if she ever felt there was a need to do so. Otherwise it was her private memory, which for some reason she didn't want to share.

When the song's last note finally died out, the room was in absolute silence, and Murdoc was hunched over his desk. It was still early in the after noon, only three PM, and the light was more than sufficient for Cyborg Noodle seeing him, Murdoc Nichols, one of the toughest, meanest, most ruthless, cool headed, cold hearted and uncaring bastards out there, struggle furiously to keep his emotions in check. After five minutes of an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to bring his emotions in check he quickly turned around and wiped his eyes, complaining loudly about some "Bloody bastarding fumes and crap in the air of this forsaken trash pile island," or something along those lines.

With a final blasphemy, he finally he turned back to cyborg and said, "I swear, that man is the Orpheus of our modern era."

Cyborg just raised an eyebrow and asked "Who?"

"Orpheus! Orpheus you bio-electronic face-ache! I thought I had programmed that in ta'yew, but I guess I must have forgotten or something… Probably the rum's fault… Anyways, Orpheus was a Greek hero, he was the greatest musician and poet of Greek myths ever. His songs could even charm wild beasts and coax even rocks and trees to move. In fact, his music was so powerful that in one of his adventures, during which he went to retrieve his dead wife from the underworld, he lulled Cerberus into sleeping, and trust you me, that dog ain't no joke, he is one mean son of a bitch." He chuckled at his own joke and continued.

"And what's even more amazing, he played so well, he was so good, so full of emotion and power and soul, tha' he even made Hades, the king of the realm of the dead, shed a tear. Anyways, look up the story if you wanna know the whole thing, the point is tha' he was so good that he would have only been rivaled by the angels. You know, I even heard from a nymph I once summed by accident called Eu…Eury…Eurydils? Eurykiss? Nah, nah… I think it was Eurydice? Yeah that sounds about right, anyways I heard from this Nymph Eurydice that his actual hair color was blue, but I never found out if that was true or not."

"Oh." Was all that cyborg said, and quickly nodded her head in understanding. That was definitely a good comparison to their blue haired singer. Though she would have liked to know if that Orpheus fellow really did have blue hair, it would be interesting to know, it could be-.

But her thoughts were cut short by some phenomenon acting on the room which immediately made her and Murdoc alert. The room had suddenly become colder, a different air, a different aura even, settled around the room. They both knew this feeling from experience, more so Murdoc than Cyborg though, as he had experienced it many more times than her. It was due to something paranormal, Cyborg knew that much. But Murdoc knew even more, this was the air of an specific sort of demon, and not a lowly imp or anything like that, this felt familiar… Very familiar…

Murdoc stood up slowly from his chair, making as little noise as possible and whispered to cyborg loudly. "For now yew come with me up to the roof will yew? I want yah to make an area scan quickly and make sure we don't have anymore of those sodding, regular low-life pirates or anything worse like that. Have your Guns ready. If it's the boogie man or anything like that, is better to have them handy."

"As you wish." Cyborg answered and with a short bow followed Murdoc up the newly repaired spiral stairs that led from the study up to the balcony on the very roof of the Plastic Beach Mansion.

Soon they reached the trapdoor that lead into the balcony, and Murdoc stopped for a second before he quietly opened it with his left hand, first cautiously looking around the balcony. And right in front of him, the boogie man stood wearing his dark robes that covered his skeletal green body and his black glass mask with red eyes from where a long and pointy rotting green nose protruded.

With his right hand, he quickly made a signal to Cyborg that let her now that they had company, and immediately slammed the trap door all the way open causing the grotesque being to spin quickly towards Murdoc to face him. An scowl of defiance was very clear in the face of Murdoc and for a second, the Boogie Man was disconcerted and frozen.

One moment was all that Cyborg needed. She quickly come up from the opening in the balcony's floor, right besides Murdoc. And in a flash she had her Uzi guns aimed at him, a crooked smile on her face. She still loved using her guns. And she fired. A swarm of bullets headed towards the Boogie Man, who had already recuperated from his short confusion and had jumped over the railing of the balcony, and dashing across the patio.

However, Cyborg Noodle wasn't originally Murdoc's bodyguard for nothing. Despite the superb speed the Boogie Man possessed, she was able to follow him from the balcony all the way through the patio with a hail of bullets that were literally brushing the skin of the heels of his feet. He tried hiding behind some ugly Statue of some demon Murdoc had put up in the patio, but it quickly became apparent to him that it would last very long, seeing as it's wings and sides were already being decimated by Cyborg's assault.

So, he jumped. Jumped from the very high patio to the ocean which was easily forty meters beneath him at the least. The impulse of his running jump, along with the acceleration due to gravity and his own propulsion from his own darker powers allowed him to go very deep, deep enough, in fact, that 2D, who had just finished recording another random beautiful song saw him out of his only window when he turned his head towards his window.

Quickly the Boogie Man corrected his trajectory and began to swim out at sea, leaving 2D to watch him move away with surprising speed. Within a few minutes at most, the Boogie man was out of the range of the Uzi's that Cyborg had used, and now was boarding the old abandoned ghost pirate ship, The _Glitter Freeze._

With an inhuman leap, the boogie man landed on the deck of the ghost ship. A dark shadow set over his gas mask, and it was possible to tell, even without the terrible oppressing feeling that he gave off, and with the mask that covered his whole face except his nose, that he was furious at Murdoc.

He slowly turned his head upwards and looked towards Murdoc, and lifted a long bony green hand and pointed it at him. Murdoc just stared out back at him from the distance a confused and dumfounded look in his face while Cyborg was already heading downstairs towards her cupboard to get herself ready for the counter attack.

The Boogie Man mad a quick motion with his hand and drew his cape with the hand that he had being pointing at Murdoc. Murdoc and him quickly had a flash back, by the way of the Boogie man's magic, about something that occurred years ago. _A dessert the four horse men of judgement day running some drills and creating some havoc in the isolated wasteland of the dessert's fields. Behind the cloud of dust raised by the Horsemen, there stands the Boogie man on his mule, looking at the Horsemen. He is called sometimes "The fifth Horseman" but really, he is more of a trainer and an embodiment of the current world's evil. _

_Then Murdoc appears, walking in from a cloud of sand. Their eyes lock. A deal is made. And they shake hands upon it. Murdoc's face as they seal the deal is one of victory and thankfulness. _And the flash back ends.

The Boogie Man now looks at Murdoc's face. It might have been four or five hundred meters away, but he sees it perfectly; he sees Murdoc's eyes glistening, his long tongue sticking out to the side as he gives a toothy smile with his mouth open, his head slightly inclined forwards and his expression one of victory and mocking.

_Dream On._ Murdoc mouths the two words at the Boogie Man mockingly. Murdoc owed him his soul, but the Boogie Man wasn't about to get any time soon. Not now, or ever. Not with out a fight at the very least.

While they glare at each other, Cyborg blows up the main door to plastic beach, causing it to come of its hinges, surprising the Plastic Beach collaborators that were all ready for battle in the beach outside the mansion. Murdoc's guest had arrived maybe a week ago, for the filming and recording of Plastic beach. However, though Murdoc had warned them about pirates, he had 'forgotten' to mention that they might encounter t the Boogie Man, or ghosts, or any other supernatural creatures which the members of Gorillaz dealt with routinely with.

At any rate, they were all geared up and ready, and they witnessed Cyborg Noodle in action. From a cloud of steam and dust from the explosion, slowly Cyborg Noodle walks out, and she is more geared up for war than Rambo. An Uzi on each hand, her favourite shot gun strapped to her back along with an AK47 machine gun and a katana sword, and, of course, two grenade and bags of bullets hang from her belt.

She loads her guns, a fierce grin painted her face as she does so. Quickly she instructs the Plastic Beach collaborators to ready for battle and to find a good place for aiming and taking cover from incoming attacks. -_This one looks like its going to be a fun one-_ she thinks to her self with a mixture of bitterness and excitement, quickly finding herself a nice thick tree to use as cover. She prepares herself mentally, and readies her 'mask', a facial expression which is meant to frighten, confuse and deter her enemies.

Meanwhile Murdoc watches the proceedings with approval. _–Good. She is doing her job well.-_ He thinks to himself, Quickly returning to observe the boogie man._-What will you do now, eh, you bloody anorexic rotting green bastard? It's just you versus me and my guests. One skinny green man on a gasmask who is on an abandoned pirate boat versus one or two dozens or people that are armed up to their teeth with cover from plastic beach, you are not getting me today. Not now, not ever!-_ Murdoc thinks smiling at himself.

The Boogie Man then brings his hands up- making his black robe part in the front which reveals the body of an skeleton with green skin hanging from it and not an ounce of meat or organs line his trunk- and throws his head back as if in a silent scream to the skies, his smile vanishes in an instant. -_What is that anorexic green wanker planning now? No… he can't be…!-_ Murdoc observes in silent rage as a thick black fog starts to emanate from the Boogie Man, dragging its self close to the ground away from him and then rising from the ground, forming columns of fog and smoke on the deck of the ship.

Soon the columns begin to swirl within themselves, twisting and churning viciously and quickly begin to take a more human shape. The general shape of heads and limbs start to become visible, sunken eyes begin to show, ears and fingers start to become visible, greyish white skin begins to appear, and within a few more moments, the smoke columns take the shape of sailors that lack any appearance of kindness or forgiveness.

Murdoc suddenly curses loudly, _-Hell fire and Damnation! I know what he is doing! Damn that sorry excuse of a bloody anorexic corpse of those horsemen! He is summoning the damn souls of dead pirates and giving them a physical form!-_ Murdoc grinds his teeth as he watches the black fog also summon a couple of pirate jets, pirates in outdated air planes of the two World Wars.

"Bastard!" Murdoc growls angrily, but his anger is quickly replaced by surprise as he sees on of the pirate jets already rushing towards him and firing its machinegun with gusto.

Murdoc's fleeing instinct instantly kicks in and he turns around in a flash, diving head first for the trapdoor in the center of the balcony and avoiding by the skin on his teeth being filled with as many holes as a Swiss cheese by the bullets of the pirate jet.

He lands heavily on his side at the bottom of the stairs, but quickly stumbles up and throws himself behind his working desk, just as the jet drops and incendiary bomb on the balcony, the force of the blast sending flames in through the entrance of the trapdoor, breaking most the glass windows of the study and charring a bit of Murdoc's arm and completely incinerating the sailor's hat he had on.

Meantime, 2D was shaking and still trapped in his underwater room as he had been for the last week. He now only had two hours of sunlight weekly, just because Murdoc felt like he had been getting too much outside. But now he could feel Plastic Beach trembling and he could distant echoes of explosions. He knew that an other fight of large scale was going on the surface, but that only made him feel worse. The Beach had NEVER shaken this much before, even when the pirates bombarded them with cannon balls. Could it be that the pirates had modernised and were now using TNT and other explosives to attack Plastic Beach? Was that figure, that thing that looked human and yet felt like it was something much darker and sinister, somehow related to the attack?

Suddenly a high pitch sound, a wailing and moaning sound rang across the room. He froze instantly. He knew that sound. He had heard it many times over his last three years in confinement. It was only recently in the last two months or so that he had heard it less due to his more frequent visits to the Beach, but it still haunted him from time to time.

Stiffly 2D turned around on his bed to face the only window in his whole room. And he saw what he most feared he would see. The whale. And he did the only thing that he could think of. He pulled his mask down. The mask was the one Noodle had made for him a long time a go, the mask of a smiling clown with white face, red lips, long pointy nose and bulging eyes. He, in turn, had made her a similar mask, but the clown had a purple fat round nose, and two purple balls of hair. That mask had been torn by the zombies long ago, but he still had his.

Through the small round window, 2D saw the whale rushing to wards him, its large maw open and revealing large teeth that could easily chew him apart. The animal who was a monstrous being in 2D's eyes swam towards him with amazing speed, quickly closing the gap between him and 2D's small underwater room. If that monster closed its jaws around the room at that speed, it would probably tear half of the room right off, and probably 2D along with it, into more than fifty meters under the ocean or into the whale's mouth.

Soon the whale's mouth was only a few feet from tearing the room apart, and 2d was able to count all the teeth the whale had at that distance. Then suddenly the jaws were abruptly pulled back just as the whale started to bite into the outer walls of the his room, as if a giant had just yanked the whale back from before it could do any real damage.

And then 2D passed out. The stress from the whole island shaking, been confined in that room for years with only very brief and very few trips to the outside of the his room, let alone the PB Mansion, and the fright of a whale, something he was afraid of almost death, nearly tearing him to pieces along with his room was too much for him, and made him pass out.

Russel

Russel grabbed a whale that was attacking the under water side of Plastic Beach, sensing that there was something happening on the surface, and judging by the slight trembling of the Beach, the flying shadows he could see, and the rotting pirate ship that was near the Beach, he could take a very good guess at what was going on above water.

Deciding on taking quick action, he decides that the whale would be a good way to frighten the enemy out of their wits and launches him self out of the water and throws it at one of the flying objects, which turned out to be the pirate jets, which immediately collided with the whale and sunk it into the ocean.

The resounding explosion from the broken pirate jet and the whale crashing back under water brought the fire to a complete stop from both sides. Everyone becoming quickly aware of a third party which had entering the fray, and watched in awe as Russel made his way towards the shore of Plastic Beach, his gigantic head alone was at least a good four or five meters tall, his hands each wide enough to grab a full sized car in its palm.

At the sight of him the Boogie man and his ghostly henchmen immediately escaped the fray, before the giant decided to throw an other whale at them or anything of the sort. However, Russel had no interest in them as he finally reached the shore of Plastic Beach and rested his arms on the island's shore and leaned forward to observe the guests of plastic beach and Cyborg, his face unreadable.

Not that the people that now stared at him realised it, they were all with their jaw hanging open, their eyes as wide open as they could go, weapons dangling from their hands, and an expression of absolute shock clearly visible on their faces. The disappeared Gorillaz drummer had arrived to Plastic Beach. And he had become about twice the size of the whale that had just sailed across the sky and literally made an impacting entrance to the Beach. How could they not be in awe?

But soon they were met with yet an other surprise. Russel then slowly opened his mouth, and a small figure stepped out of it. It was obviously a woman, seeing as the person had breasts and wider hips, but she was maybe only five feet in height, with a bonny and somewhat sickly frame. She wore a Japanese cat mask, a dress of mostly white with red pockets, and black and white stripped stockings.

Slowly Russel brought his hand up to help her come down, and as she stepped in his hand, she took a couple of deep breaths and lifted her mask up, revealing the missing Gorillaz member, with a bruised right eye. Noodle was now lowered to the ground and staring at the people before her. She quickly pulled her mask back on, making sure that none had seen her blackened eye, but had seen enough to recognise her as Noodle of the world famous band known as Gorillaz. A complete silence engulfed the Beach now, and it stayed that way for several moments until finally Noodle spoke. She didn't talk loudly, in fact it was a bit weak if anything, but everyone heard her.

"We are back." She said from behind her mask. And then, she collapsed and passed out. The tension of the moment was lost in a second. Everyone rushed towards noodle to help her get in the Mansion, not without getting a warning from the now enlarged Russel to not lift her mask up or else they would have to deal with him.

At last, Russel, the heart of Gorillaz, and Noodle, half of the body and half of the soul of Gorillaz, had arrived to Plastic Beach. The final missing pieces of the gigantic phenomenon that was Gorillaz had finally come.

The Ogre, the Dragon, the ferocious and powerful being that was known across the world as Gorillaz had begun to stir again.

**-Tada! What do you people think? There are some parts I don't like that much, but I think it came out decently at least. Its harder to write a story out of the Rhinestone eyes story board than I thought though -_-'. Anyways, Let me know what you people think.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Dragon here! Right, so I have had a surprisingly large amount of ideas as to what to do with the relation ship of 2D with Noodle and Cyborg, considering I had expected none. So here is what is going down: **

**I'm going to keep making the story the way J.J. asked me to (partially because its an original idea, partially because its interesting, and largely because I owe him), BUT I might develop an alternate reality version of it. I don't know yet, but we'll see I guess.**

**Thanks to my reviewers who are honest with me (Or at least I hope they are! 0_o) and help me stay on task!**

**Anyways! Onwards with the story!**

Chapter 5- Blue hairs and Green eyes

2D

The guests and Cyborg quickly gathered Noodle up and amongst them brought her up the stairs of the entrance of PB Mansion and quickly split into three groups. One group, led by cyborg, went upstairs to search for Murdoc, the second, took Noodle up to the living room by the balcony, were she could be more comfortable and they could keep an eye on her while conversing with Russel to try to make either heads or tails of what occurred to Russel and Noodle after all this time with out hearing of them.

The last and smallest group went in search of 2D, hoping that he might still be alive. After all, they might have been facing pirate jets and bullets, but he was under at least 60 or 70 feet, if not more, of underwater pressure and protected by only a few feet of plastic and trash. The tremors caused by the bombs, the whale, the canon balls, and Russel, might have just hit the right way to break the walls that surrounded 2D.

Much to their relief, 2D was merely unconscious under head of his own trinkets and items, but the room looked like it had been rocked by tremor fit to level a city to rubble. Perhaps it was because 2D's room had been originally part of an old submarine from the Second World War; Or perhaps it was because the trash had been under so much pressure, due to been so far under water it for so long, that it was now super compressed and as a result much stronger than it was before; Maybe there was even a higher power that was watching over 2D. But the fact that the room had not collapsed, flooded, or done any other number of things that could have killed 2D was quite surprising and great relief for the group.

Soon the four members of the small group composed of the threesome of De la Soul trio and Little Dragon, began to unbury 2D from his belongings and attempt to wake him up. However the only response they got from him at first time was: "Mmmmm…. Nood'l…. Cyb'rg… Zzzz… Five mo' minutz' Wuzzel… I don' wanna go zombie hunting ri'h nao'…zzzZ….Sod 'ff Murzok…Zzzzz…"

However after a good vigorous shaking of his shoulders and a bucket of water to the face, 2D came back to the land of the living rather quickly.

"WHATHA-! WHO WHOT WERE ?" He screamed in panic and confusion, shaking his mane of blue hair around like the strands of whips as he confusedly looked around him in semi-panic at his rather sudden awaking. Finally, when he realized that he wasn't alone, he spotted De la Soul and Little Dragon, who quickly told him the story about what had occurred. And naturally, as soon as the words _'Russel and Noodle are here'_ were spoken, it was as if he suddenly dissolved into thin air, because one moment he was there with the four of them, listening to the pirate attack story and how Russel and Noodle arrived, and the next he wasn't.

More accurately, he had gotten up and ran out the door so quickly, that by the time they realized that he was no longer in front of their eyes, he was already at the lift, and urging them to hurry up or he would leave them down there until he got back. In an instant the other four got caught up in his child like excitement and towards the elevator, chattering excitedly amongst themselves while 2D just stared at the elevator's floor panel with such intensity that it was obvious that he was willing it to go up faster.

And just when one of the four rescuers was halfway opening his mouth to tell him that he _couldn't_ really make the elevator go faster by willing it to do so, the elevator music came to an end and a soft "Ding!" was heard, announcing their arrival. This naturally left them all with their jaws hanging open, since the ride up had taken less than half of the time it had taken to go down. Everyone except for 2D of course, to whom the trip had seem to last five times longer as usual.

As the doors were opened wide enough, 2D again dematerialized from their sights just as the other four gathered their jaws from the floor and grinned broadly at each other. This wasn't just any band they were talking about. This was Gorillaz. And around them, virtually ANYTHING was possible…. Save, perhaps, become God, as much as Murdoc would wish it was possible.

The 2D rescue team rushed after him, laughing and high-fiving each other much like a bunch of teenage friends that have known each other all their lives would have done. After all, they understood, perhaps as well or even better that the very Gorillaz members that they all had become a part of each others lives, and that they literally needed each other to some extent. This last bit didn't apply so much to Russel and Murdoc, who were fully capable of surviving on their own much better than the other two, but it did apply heavily to 2D and Noodle, due to their especial Zen bond that bordered a spiritual, mental, and physical link like those that would only show up in some fantasy or science fiction book. Hell, many would argue that calling them telepathic when it came to each other was not really very far off the mark.

Little Dragon and the De La Soul threesome turned their heads back towards 2D just in time to see how he turned a corner about 200 meters from were they were. "Damn, that 2D has wings on his feet, man!" Someone from the De la Soul said as they pressed on. They turned the corner a few seconds later, all of them breathing hard and huffing from their mad dash, only to find that 2D was gone. In fact, at the rate he was running they wouldn't be surprised if he was just arriving, and if in the process he had broken the 100 meter, 200 meter and 500 meter sprinting and running world records.

"That kid has to have some kinda'...*Huff*... wings on his feet or some thing…*Huff, huff*…" Posdnuos from De la Soul said as he leaned on the nearest wall to him to support himself with one arm, in an attempt to catch his breath.

"No kidding man. *wheeze* . How does he run like that after *huff, huff* been locked away for so long…?" Dave from De la Soul asked as he leaned his whole back on the wall besides Posdnous.

"That Usian Bolt dude *huff, huff* you know, the one that won the *pant, huff* Olympics? That Blot got nothing on 2D, that's fo' sho'!" Maseo from De la Soul said as he supported himself on the wall opposite to his partners, as he wiped his arm across his forehead.

"Agreed. *Huff, Huff* God, I'm glad I was wearing runners and jeans today and not high heels!" Little Dragon said as she doubled over with her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath.

After a they all took a minute to catch their breath, Little Dragon Straightened up and looked at the other three before asking, "What do you guys think is going to happen?"

"Looks like some one was in high spirits, doesn't it?" Posdonuos ask with a bit of a smile in his face.

"It sure does…" Replied Maseo. Then he smiled broadly and said, "….Hey you know what? I think there are going to be some developments here, don't you guys?"

The other members of the rescue party gave him a blank stare, but after a moment Little Dragon was the first to understand what he meant, and smiling and nodding at him.

"I bet fifty on 2D getting Noodle." Maseo said quickly. Suddenly everyone understood and what he meant and smiled along with him and Little Dragon. "And fifty more riding on that Russel is going to take a decade to be his normal height again."

"No way man," Dave said, "Its totally going to be awkward for them after not seeing each other in years, besides something seems off about Noodle… I think Cyborg is really getting into him, have you seen the looks she gives him? And she can be aggressive to boot. I got fifty on Cyborg. And I got thirty that say Russel is staying like that for an other year."

"What have you two been smoking?" Asked Posdnuos, "Dave is right about Noodle, but Cyborg is Murdoc's body guard and what not, so I doubt anything is going down between those two either. I got fifty on all become close friend, and an other fifty that say that Russel will take at least half a month to shrink back to normal."

Little Dragon was very pensive while she heard all of this, and after a moment she finally spoke up with a wide grin. "I think 2D gets both of them! I bet fifty that's what happens, and an other fifty say that there is going to hell over it! AND I think Russel will take half a year in recovering his normal size, I got fifty on that too."

Those words earned her gasp and bulging eyes from the three guys from De la Soul, who now stared at her with their jaws on the floor.

"Well, what? Its 2D we are talking about here. I have heard rumours that he had seven girlfriends with him at the same time at one point." The others gasped again, and she continued. "Plus, remember, it's one from the band of Gorillaz who we are talking about. 2D to boot! ANYTHING is possible with them."

At this point the guys muttered amongst themselves. It might be Gorillaz, and it might be the weirdest person of the Gorillaz band, but still….that couldn't happen…Could it?

"Girl?," Posdnuos asked, "Are you high?"

At this point everyone laughed and Little Dragon replied with a smile. "Nope, but this is not a serious bet with huge loads of money riding on it, so I thought I might as well have a little fun, right? Even if I might have to pay fifty or a hundred bucks to all of you by the end of it, just to see the expression on your faces right now, it was worth it."

Again everyone laughed. It was true, this might be a bet, but it wasn't really even a considerable sum of money to people like them, who as music stars earned many times that in a single hour of work in a concert or in an Album release. So why not have some fun with it?

"Alright then, we better catch up with 2D now." Maseo said, "We might have spend only five minutes, in here, but we might be missing the best part of the entertainment for all we know!"

The comment was received with nodded heads and spoken words of agreement and again the set off at high speed giving, trying to arrive to the living room to miss as little as possible of the show that they were bound to receive from 2D and the rest of the band.

Murdoc

The group that went to search for Murdoc, was somewhat less worried about him as the 2D rescue group was worried about 2D, after all, they knew that A) Murdoc was as a stubborn as an old goat, so we wouldn't give out so easily and B) that if Murdoc had any other talent besides Music and "Hunting for Birds" as he liked to call his womanizing games, was his ability to give death the slip. Obviously as much as he liked to claim he was a Satanist, he quite clearly disliked the idea of handing his soul over to a demon or to eternal damnation, and as such that definitely had to be an extra incentive to not get killed. At least until he could cheat his way out of not paying soul to whatever demon he owed it to, and he had a chance to go to some other place that was _NOT_ demon and evil infested.

And sure enough, once that the team arrived to the Study-Studio Level, they weren't surprised to find that there was some loud cursing and swearing from behind an ash covered oak work table.

"HEEEEEEEEEELP! GIT ME OUT OF HERE! IM BEHIND THE DESK THINGY! HEEEEEEEEEELP!" And at that point a long string of swearing followed all the way until the rescue group was looking over the desk.

They found him laying face down with only his head and his right arm sticking out from underneath a piece of the of concrete that appeared to have come flaying from the concrete stairs that led up to the balcony on the roof.

"What are you all morons standing there fo'? HURRY UP AND GIT ME OUTA HERE!" He roared at them, irritated that they would only stare at him gapingly. "What have you never seen a man stuck under a big slab of concrete before? Hurry up and git this sodding thing off me before the chair that is holding it up gives out and this thing really crushes me!"

Nodding quickly, the team of thirteen people which was led by Cyborg got to work, and between them they managed to lift the slab of concrete enough so that a very dirty and somewhat singed Murdoc could wiggle his way out from under it before they let it go exhaustedly, which created loud snapping and crunching noises for an instant as the heavy mass of concrete finally succeeded in obliterating the oak chair that had saved Murdoc's life.

Murdoc stood up shakily and Cyborg went to his side to offer her shoulder as a support while he stabilized himself, which he took.

"Thanks Cyborg. That was closer than I would have liked." Murdoc said, "And that forsaken chair fell just at the wrong angle, so that if I tried to move, it would shift and would have probably crushed me or pined me down. Why couldn't it have landed better, huh? And also…" And so on, he ranted on about whole incident for a good ten minutes while everyone cached their breaths.

When he finally had blown off enough steam and the team had gathered their breath, they explained to him the situation regarding Noodle and Russel. Murdoc was completely speechless, which was a very rare sight considering he would always, or almost always anyways, have a comeback, a comment, a last word, or some kind of input response to most anything that he was faced with. But this... This had caught him completely of guard, and he had no response for the better part of two whole minutes, just staring dumbly at his rescuers before he gave his head a good shake and gave quick grunt and turned to the door saying, "Right then. Lets be on our way!" And one of those very, _very_ rare real smiles of his appeared on his lips as he made his way with the rest of the group down the auxiliary stairs to the living room where Noodle and Russel were supposedly staying.

Russel

Russel was bombarded with questions by half of the plastic beach collaborators while they waited for 2D and Murdoc to join them. It had taken them very little time to get over their ear of Russel, since this _was_ the band that had lived in a paranormal wonder house for nearly ten years, which was infested with not only ghosts of its previous residents, but also with zombies, some lower class demons, gargoyles, imps, mummies, walking skeletons, talking animals, and several other very odd creatures.

In fact, those who knew the Gorillaz from way back when they first started, seemed to remember something about werewolves, vampires, and once a dragon who apparently slept underneath a section in the east grounds of KONG where the graveyard, and one of the larger hills of in the grounds joined at one of the corners of the vast grounds of KONG. Which would explain why none of the other creatures would get within 300 meters radius of that large hill in the corner of the grounds of KONG. Brainless or not, even the Zombies could feel that if they pissed the dragon off, they would die again. Only much more painfully and horribly than their previous death.

So, after the incident that caused them to be met face to face with a dragon that was as big as Russel was now, but much louder and with a maw that could spit fire for a good 40 meters in front of him, Russel didn't seem so bad.

At any rate, Russel did his best to answer his questions for a full eight minutes, until he spotted a blue blur heading straight towards Noodle, at which point he instantly assumed it was some kind of missile from those God-forsaken pirate jets that had been tailing them for a while now. And before he could so much as gas in surprise and begin rising his hand to try to squash whatever newly developed rocket was headed towards his baby girl, it stopped right in front of Noodle, which surprised and confused Russel enough to freeze him in his tracks before finishing rising his fist and stamping out whatever the blue blur was and half of the room along with.

It took Russel a few seconds to unfreeze and realize that it wasn't a newly developed rocket; in fact it wasn't a rocket at all. It was 2D! He had been about to crush 2D and half of the room along with half of the people inside of it! He somewhat sheepishly lower his hand but quickly regained his composure and made his presence known to 2D who hadn't even noticed him, despite him being twice larger than that whale he had thrown towards that pirate jet not even an hour ago, and was frozen staring at noodle as if frozen in time.

He was literally not breathing, in a slight crouch as if he was in the middle of kneeling down, right hand half out stretched towards Noodle, and his eyes so wide open that they were the size of two black plates. He was brought back to the land of the living when a booming voice was heard addressing him.

"2D? Is that you man?" Russel asked with wonder.

2D seemed to breath again and turned his head towards the source of the voice.

"Huh-? WHAAAAA!" He screamed and jumped backwards, falling hard on his rear end, like he had just seen ghost wearing a monocle and a werewolf with a top hat talking to him, which he might as well have seen because it was just as likely as meeting a Russel that was at least twice bigger than that God-forsaken whale that had been keeping an eye on him for all this years.

"Whoa, take it easy man!" Russel said with concern a hint of amusement in his voice. Leave it to 2D to miss a giant who is right in front of him and then jump in the air high enough to shatter all world records after he finally notices. "It's me, Russel. Take it easy man, you don't wanna' give yourself a heart attack."

That was easier said than done. 2D had been practically dreaming of the day Noodle and Russel came back, but he had never expected Russel to be a giant, which as you might imagine could be quite intimidating. So 2D just spent a few seconds just staring at Russel with his mouth slightly opened and still sitting on the floor, trying to process the information that A) Russel and Noodle were back, B) There was a giant talking to him from across the opened glass sliding doors of the living room, and C) The giant was Russel.

Russel eyes scanned over 2D's appearance in general, taking it in, and saw several things he didn't find too pleasing. 2D looked worn, low, and some of the glow he used to have in his face in earlier years was gone. His clothes were tattered at the edges and very wrinkled, his face showed signs of not been shaved regularly, and the dark shadows under his eyes that he had had since Murdoc's driving incidents seemed darker. In fact, the only thing that he could see that was the same or better about 2D was the fact that he had now more muscle and less fat on his body. But even that seemed to have a darker aspect, as Russel could easily imagine that the lack of fat was due not to 2D being on a diet, but lack of proper nutrition.

When 2D finally managed to come to comprehend this, he managed to shakily stand up and look at Russel, and Russel's eyes flicked slightly to catch 2D's, whose eyes were now a milky white instead of his usual black voids. This surprised Russel since the last time his eyes had turned white, that he could recall anyways, had been in the "Rock it" music video they had done. And they still didn't know why his eyes turned white then. It was odd, now that he thought about it. He hadn't been possessed or anything along those lines…So why _did_ his eyes turn white sometimes?

"R-Ru-Russel?" 2D's quavering and disbelieving voice snapped Russel back into reality. Focusing again on the lanky blue haired singer, he noticed that his eyes were again the same pitch black as they had always been, and offered him a large toothy smile. "RUSSEL!" 2D yelled out in excitement, jumping up and down spreading his arms wide and waving them madly as if by doing that he could fly over to Russel and say hi up close.

"That's me!" Russel said laughing out loud. He had missed 2D antics more than he had foreseen, they actually grew on you after a while. "But keep it down 2D, Noodle passed out and is laying on the couch. You don't want to wake her up, now do you?"

Of course, as soon as Russel said that, 2D immediately remembered Noodle and with gasp he rushed over to her side. He began fussing about her, making sure she wasn't cold or that her hands weren't hanging off the couch. And just as he began to do that, the self proclaimed king of music and leader of Gorillaz arrived with the rescue crew into the room with Cyborg Noodle by his side.

"Welcome back my underlings!" He said loudly, as he lifted his arms wide above his head, a huge grin plastered on his face as he walked forwards quickly, only to stop abruptly with his hands still held high at the sight of Russel.

Murdoc and Russel looked over each other for a moment and then locked eyes with one another, for what to them seemed to last hours, though in reality it wasn't more than a minute or two. However, during those brief moments, the whole room to fell silent, as there was an undeceive tension about in the air, similar to the one you would feel if you were to encounter two powerful animals staring at each other trying to decide if the other was a friend or foe. Of course, the only exception to this was an oblivious 2D still fussed over Noodle.

The tension due to the stare down seemed to be escalating, and Cyborg, sensing the danger, began to set her self between Russel and Murdoc, which didn't help ease the tension at all. If anything, it made it escalate even more, because as soon as Russel saw Cyborg, a quite audible growl could be hear from his throat, and he returned to stare even more intensity into Murdoc's eyes. By this point, half of the Gorillaz collaborators were positively quaking in fear.

"OW!" 2D shouted out, and everyone turned to look at him, and the dozens of pairs of eyes found him laying flat on the floor and just standing up. When he was finally up he dusted himself and turned to find them all staring at him. "What? I jus' fell down."

Murdoc face palmed and looked at 2D. "2D, only you would be able to fall down while standing still on a flat surface!" Murdoc said exasperated, as he stared at a sheepish 2D.

However, 2D's actions had managed to dissolve most, if not all, of the tension in the room. The way things had looked there for a minute, it had been perfectly possible that Russel would bring his fist, which was as big as van, crushing down on Murdoc, and whipping out half of them along with him. Which caused every collaborator to mentally say "_Thank the Lord for 2D!"_, and most of them also made a mental note to thank God for 2D and his fall in their next prayer.

Russel, on the other hand, couldn't help but laugh at that, as it reminded him of the older days of the band when they all used to be together. At that moment whatever was left of the tension in the room dissolved away, and everyone was much reassured that they wouldn't be smashed into oblivion by a very pissed off Russel.

"So, anyways, welcome back Russel." Murdoc began. "I see you've put on some weight, huh?" Murdoc chuckled, and Russel just crossed his arms and quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, thanks to some green dude that I'm looking at right now. Maaaan, what were you _thinking_ when you didn't call me back for the next album, huh? I am actually thoroughly insulted." Russel said with indignation.

"Hey, wait a minute there King Kong. Its not like I didn't _want_ you here, but it's that I couldn't find you! It was like you were gone from the face of the Earth! That, and my search was rushed due to some, erm… ex-costumers of mine who were hell bent in, ahhh… detaining and dispatching me." Murdoc said carefully but truthfully. There was no need to let everyone know that he was being chased down by hit men because of some shady deals that he'd done.

But he couldn't fool Russel, who said, "I see… We'll talk later about this. _In detail_."

"Right," Murdoc said nodding in agreement. No point in opposing a band member like Russel, especially when he was now a giant. "Now where is Noodle? I heard that she was here too."

"She's right over there, you alcoholic alien." Russel said as he pointed to 2D, who was fussing over her. In fact, 2D was about to lift the mask when Russel stopped him by saying, "Hold it 2D! She said to not lift up that mask. Not yet, and if you or Murdoc do so before she allows you to, you'll have to deal with me." He finished of with growl and a serious look at 2D and Murdoc, both of which gulped and nodded at him.

"Cyborg, stand down. Russel is not a threat at the moment." Murdoc said and made his way to the couch were Noodle lay. Cyborg saluted Murdoc and turned to stare at Russel, which to her surprise, was staring back at her.

"Who are you?" Russel asked flatly, much unlike his usual gentleman-like approach when directing himself at anybody for the first time.

"Cyborg Noodle," Cyborg responded unflinchingly. She was still part machine, and had too little experience with human interaction and with Russel to know or understand, that this was rude or even unusual to be talked to in such a way. "I was made by Mr. Murdoc as a temporary replacement for Noodle, and to be his body guard. I was made from advanced robotics and Noodle's DNA."

Russel just looked at her for a moment. As much as he hated to admit it, she was a pretty realistic copy of Noodle, and further more she seemed to have basic knowledge and understanding of humans. He didn't like the idea that Murdoc had made her to replace Noodle, not one bit, and in fact it angered him somewhat the very notion of replacing his baby girl. However, he understood he had no right to complain or throw a tantrum about it at the moment, after all, Murdoc had thought she was dead, he had thought she was dead, hell, the whole world, with the exception of 2D, had thought she was dead.

But what bothered him most because he just couldn't throw all his anger at Murdoc was the idea that he might have done the same thing if he could. Could he have resisted not creating his own Noodle if he had had all the resources and knowledge on how to do it in the palm of his hand? Could he have resisted the temptation of not creating a Noodle, artificial or not, so to ease the pain he had felt when she had gone missing? He couldn't honestly say he would have to either of those questions, even in his mind. The only thing that offered him some respite from the thought that he might have done the same thing as Murdoc if he could have, was the fact that he would have done it out of pain that stemmed from his fatherly love towards Noodle, and that Murdoc had done it out of profit, to continue his band, and to serve him as his eternal musician and body guard rather than out of love or pain.

Finally Russel nodded at her. "Pleased to meet you, I'm Russel Hobbs, original drummer of Gorillaz." And he extended her his index finger to shake, which she did after taking a moment to process that that's what he wanted her to do and that it was a gesture of good will.

"Cyborg Noodle, but you can call me Cyborg. That's what 2D calls me so that I would be different from Noodle." She responded as she shook his finger. From there on they engaged in some talk about what Russel had missed in his absence from Plastic Beach.

Mean while, Murdoc observed Noodle pensively while 2D kept making sure he was comfortable. Murdoc analysed her from head to toe with out moving from the spot, one arm crossed over his chest and his chin resting on the back of the other hand. _Hmmm… She still seems to have the scent from an alternate dimension… its like a mix… not completely like the scent found in the levels of hell… its more like…a spirit realm in which spirits, monsters, and devils are the norm…. yeah, that sounds about right… But it smells of the worse parts of it… So she was near hell's domain the whole time then…? If so, no wonder she is so skinny. Biological soldier or not, I can't imagine there is much to eat in there, and even a super soldier needs to eat. That and her body doesn't seem like it should for a girl in her early twenties… it seems like she is only 18 at most. But you can see that there is definitely signs of struggle and a few scars that are not quite hidden in her clothes… So, the human body develops much slower in that dimension…That would explain why her body hasn't healed completely yet too…_

Finally his musings were cut short when 2D spoke up.

"Eh… Murdoc? Don't cha' think we should find her a place to sleep? I can't imagine tha' the couch is very comfortable." 2D question Murdoc.

"Right," Murdoc grunted, "Well, she'll have to sleep in your room, face-ache. So take her there."

"Wai- wha'?" 2D asked with surprise, "Why my room? We got many otha' rooms she could probably be more comfortable in. My room is one of the coldest and darkest places in the whole mansion! I am sure there is some place better than tha'."

"Because, you blithering idiot, all the other extra rooms that were ready for guests that I saw on the way down seemed to have been ruined or badly damaged by the last pirate attack and that damn Boogie Man! As it is, I think the collaborators will have to share rooms! So suck it up, you blue haired monkey, and besides, I think she would rather wake up and se you than she would like to wake up alone in some unknown room or with some other random people she's never seen before." Murdoc explained with an exasperated tone to the Blue haired singer, as if explaining something so basic that it was stupid to say aloud.

"Oh." Was all that 2D answered before he gave him a nod and turned to carefully begin to gather up Noodle. Giving an exasperated sigh, he turned around to all the collaborators and addressed them.

"Well my friends, how lucky you are on being the first to see the arrival of the final members of Gorillaz, and on your last day on the island no less! So, before you go today to pack your stuff to go to your tiny little homes in where ever it is they are, let me say one thing: Spread the word! Tell everyone, everyone must know this! Let them know that the Gorillaz are back!" Murdoc finished dramatically, raising his hands up in the air as if to emphasise the importance of the message, that, to him at the very least, was of the equivalent importance as of letting the world know that a group of angels had descended from heaven bearing a message from God, and that said angels were staying on earth for a whole day to bless some churches personally.

The enthusiasm that he put on his words earned him a loud cheer from the collaborators, followed by a lot of clapping, and finally by the collaborators exiting the room excited to tell the world the news that they now held.

Once all of the collaborators had left, Russel turned to Murdoc with a serious expression. "You have some explaining to do. And you need to make me something that can return me to my original size, cause I am sure as hell not staying like this for long ya' hear?"

"Fine, fine, fine…I'll come up with something but can we have the talk tomorrow? It might still be early, but I just got my beach bombed and I'm not exactly in the best story telling mood" Murdoc reasoned with Russel. "Besides, if I get started now, I might be able to come up with some kind of cure by tomorrow or the day after for you."

Russel just grunted at him and watched as he walked away, hunching over slightly as he exited the room, followed by Cyborg and then by 2D, who had finally finished gathering up Noodle into his arms with such care, that you'd think he was dealing with some instrument that was of outmost delicacy and required the outmost care.

"Yo, 2D." Russel called after him just before he exited the room.

"Yah, Russ?" He said as he half turned around to face him.

"Be careful with her, you hear? She is fragile right now. I couldn't tell very well from the first time I met her, but she is different and in a much more delicate state than I thought she could ever be." Russel said with care and a suggested warning for 2D, trying to tell him she was not the same as before.

2D looked at him for a second unblinkingly and expressionless, before he tilted his head to one side and his facial expression softened considerably and offered Russel a delicate but honest smile. "I know." 2D answered softly, and turned around and exited the room, leaving a baffled Russel behind.

_He __**knows**__? What does he know? How does he know? When did he find out? Where did he find it out? Who told him?_ Was all that Russel could wonder for the next half an hour before he finally decided to forget about it. It was 2D after all. He might be a dullard sometimes, he might be slow, and he might not be the greatest in academics, but one thing he had on his favour was that he could understand people. Especially Noodle. And Noodle had told Him more than once that she and 2D had some special Zen bond thing that he really didn't get, but he assumed it was similar to what he had with Dell, except that they weren't possessing each other, and that he got the feeling the feelings ran deeper and somewhat differently.

At any rate, he had learned a long time a go, that were it concerned Noodle and anything that had to do directly with her, 2D would always know and comprehend whatever it was that had to do with Noodle, and the same applied to Noodle were it concerned 2D or anything that had to do directly with him. How they did it, or what allowed them to do it, he couldn't even begin to fathom. All that he knew is that they did it, and that it was so accurate and informative that it was plain scary sometimes.

He could recall at least ten times of the top of his head, right there and then, in which nobody had been able to make heads or tails of what was going on with Noodle or what she wanted for hours when she first arrived to KONG. And then 2D would just show up and he would take one look at her, and she would say a few quick words in Japanese, or make some kind of gesture, or maybe not even say anything at all but just cling to him, and 2D would know exactly what she wanted. Whether she just wanted a piggy back ride, a cookie, or if she was hungry or sleepy, whatever it was 2D would comprehend within a few short moments what she meant. Frankly, it had scared him and Murdoc more than once. That kind of communication and understanding were just not natural.

So in the end, Russel just shook his head, and tried to not think on how did they do that, because frankly it was unnerving and to some degree it also caused him a sort of jealousy, knowing that he would never be able to understand his baby girl as much as 2D did. _Only Lord knows how they do it, but they do it._ And with a sigh, he decided to lay down on the island's beach, covering about half of it as ha allowed himself to extend himself fully, promptly falling a sleep.

In his mind, he dreamed of the days when they first met and their first CD's Music faintly played in the background through out the whole dream, causing him to sigh happily and have the best dream he'd had in a long, long time.

**TADDA! What do you guys think eh? There are some parts that I don't really feel are as good as they should be, but I think its decent enough for now. Again huge thanks to all the people who actual read this, because even though I write just for fun, its nice to know that there is people who appreciate this. **

**Any who, the ideas presented by De la Soul and Little Dragon are the four ideas which have been presented to me by some of my readers and one of them by my friend J.J. To know which is the way that the story is going to go, you'll just have to read! X)**

**Lastly, I am sorry that I haven't uploaded earlier, but you can blame school for that. Grade 12 is a pain in the ass. But you people can also blame the Flying Alcohol Rainbow Pigs if you don't want to blame school. Whatever, your choice :p. **

**Until the next chapter, then! This is Dragon logging out.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Heya all! Yes I'm Back, once again, I am back! Yeah, so first things first. I would like to thank my amazing readers, so here it goes!**

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**J.J- Dude, you know this is because of you! You better like it! =p**

**Reader****- I don't know who you are, but thanks! Your reviews are very informative and honest and I **_**REALLY **_**appreciate that. =)**

**DeimosPhobos-Thanks! Glad you like it. As for 2D, now he is somewhere in between a Buddhist and a Christian. This is because since Murdoc has no proven to him across the years that Satan exist, therefore he figures that God and Jesus also exist, but he still believes in Buddha too. In reality, he is an interesting mix of these two major religions. Hope that makes sense =p**

**Secondly, here is the quick lowdown on where was ****Noodle****: **

**So, As you all know, according to this story, Noodle has just arrived to Plastic Beach (HUZZA!), but she isn't in a great physical shape. So, allow me to explain a bit. First of all, Noodle wasn't in Hell, as in the real Hell with all the real fallen angels, The devil, and eternal suffering stuff. She was in an alternate dimension between worlds. This dimension is what we could call the gate of the nether world. It's sort of like the a dimension which connects several worlds at once, including our world, the realm of limbo, Hell, Heaven, and a few other worlds which consist of other more fantastical creatures. However, in this place (because its connection to those specific worlds) is about 60 or 70 percent phantom-like. Meaning that there are less things that are material (like solid trees, solid animals, and stuff like that) than there are phantom-like things (like ghosts, spirits, mirages, illusions, etc.). That means that there is less food, less shelter, and things like that; And that's the cause of Noodle's bad condition. More will be spoken about this realm later on in the story. **

**Now onwards with the story! Let the fun begin!**

Chapter 6: Awake

2D

2D took the stairs as he carried Noodle down to his room since Murdoc had taken the elevator. The stairs were very well hidden, in fact they could have easily be called a secret passage way, but in reality they were more of an emergency exit. Murdoc had had them built because their engineer and maintenance worker had often cut the power during the first years of their stay in their island in his repairs and maintenance to the power generator, and he thought it was a good idea to have a way to reach 2D in case one day the engine was out for more than a day. He didn't want 2D dead, and what if they had a concert? Or a recording planned? It was imperative to get to 2D, or, Lord forbid, he might lose money by not getting to him on time.

At any rate, it took him a few minutes to reach his floor, after all, he _was_ sleeping in the underwater levels, down more than 60 or 70 feet underwater. He didn't know exactly how deep, Murdoc had never told him the exact measures, nor was he sure he wanted to find out, but he knew it was deep. But this time, he took longer than usual because he was carrying the small frame Noodle, who was already curled up in his arms and sleeping soundly. She had obviously not slept well in a long, _long_, time.

He had checked her over as well as he could with his eyes without taking anything off, and what he saw he hadn't been too happy with. She had scars and bruises, and saying she was skinny was a complete understatement. She was even skinnier than he had been when the band started! That is to say, she had so little meat and fat on her that he could feel her ribs across the fabric of her clothes much more clearly than he would have liked to, her arms where stick like, and her legs, though they were in a better shape, where still weak looking. And even though she was small, he was sure that she was way underweight. In fact, he was almost sure she was at _least_ thirty pounds underweight.

Also, he could _feel_ something was off. Something about her was not right, as if a piece of her had been injured badly, which was partly why as soon as he had spotted Noodle he had rushed to inspect her. He had at first thought it was some kind of wound and he had feared she was missing an arm or something, which thankfully proved to not be so. Still, he was sure that whatever it was that had occurred to Noodle would take time to heal. And that worried him. It worried him because he knew that he himself wasn't completely fine, as much as he wished to convince himself otherwise, even if Cyborg had helped him heal somewhat, and he feared that he wouldn't be able to help her as much as he should because of he himself wasn't fine.

Still, he couldn't help but to smile at her. As battered and sorry looking as she was, she was finally she was here. She was with him. And he wasn't going to let her go like last time ever again! Unconsciously he held her a bit tighter and a soft growl escaped his throat. He was stronger now. He had survived zombies, demons, imps, vampires, pirates, the Bogie Man, a dragon (albeit because he decided to let them go), and even a whale! Hell, he had survived _Murdoc_! He now had even some fighting experience with close range weapons, hand-to-hand, and with guns thanks to the pirates. And damn if he was going to be useless! He wasn't going to let anything happen to her.

He sighed as he finally stopped his musings as he finally stepped off the winding staircase into his floor, and automatically began heading towards his room. It wasn't long before he reached it, there were only a few doors in his floor, but he struggled with the doorway. Seeing as it was a hatch, he had to turn the wheel to open the door, which was a problem due to Noodle in his arms.

After a good fifteen minutes of struggling to open the door, he finally managed to open it with his left hand, while using the arm of that same hand to support Noodle's legs at the same time. He finally stepped in his messy room, which was dimly lit since he hadn't bothered to turn the lights on for fear Noodle would awaken and therefore the only light that graced the room came from the light which managed to filter itself through the water and through his room's circular window. He walked in with caution, carefully stepping over and around the many items that were scattered on the floor until he reached his bed, in which he set Noodle down and tucked her in with care.

He stood there for a minute, just watching her sleep, as still as a statue, and as silent as a ghost. He just stood there relaxed, yet some how protectively, like one of those holy guardians of temples and churches that are often depicted in stories and paintings across the world. In fact, saying that he somewhat resembled the works of the ancient artists who portrayed a deity or angel that watched over someone or something wasn't a stretch. It was almost an understatement.

After a while his mind started turn towards thoughts of rest, after all, even though it wasn't late, even though normally he would have turned on his television and watched one of his zombie movies, the events that had taken place earlier that day had left him considerably drained of energy, and in no small part due to his race across the whole Plastic Beach Mansion and the emotional spikes he had had, which included fear from the pirate attack and the whale, disbelief, shock, and overwhelming happiness due to Russel and Noodle.

Now that he thought about it, he was kind of sweaty and sticky… and perhaps a bit smelly. He quickly resolved to grab a towel and his pyjamas, which really was just some blue pants that reached mid calf and a black, sleeveless t-shirt, and he headed towards his washroom the east wing of his room, and oddly enough behind a bookshelf that acted as a door. Murdoc, being as he is, had decided that 2D's room would have a 'secret' door, which was the bookshelf. And when one forced the book that said "Zombies and Brains" to the left, it revealed a handle that allowed one to slide the door open. Once the door was opened and then closed again, the book would return to its original place by spring-loaded action. Though Murdoc said it was just in case the island was ever taken over pirates, so that he could hide until cyborg could get to him, 2D had the suspicion it had been a prototype so that Murdoc could se if the bookshelf that acted as a door slid in and out nicely without leaving any gaps which might give it away.

Either way, the fact was that his bathroom was beyond said bookshelf, which he promptly opened and went about his business. Twenty minutes later he emerged from behind the bookshelf, fully dressed in his pyjamas, hair sticking out in every direction, and looking somewhat refreshed. Still, there was only one bed in his room, and even though it was wider than it looked (one would never guess it was a double bed by looking at it from the side), he still hesitated to crawl his way in.

He didn't quite know why. In fact, thinking back on it, 2D recalled that, back in phase one and even in phase two, it hadn't been an unusual sight for him and Noodle to be found sleeping together in the same bed. If anything, it might have been more unusual to find Noodle sleeping in her own bed. But then again, it had always been Noodle that had come to his bed or asked if she could stay. And this was often due to nightmares, storms, Zombies, demons, ghouls, and other things like those that occurred around KONG that compelled Noodle to sleep with 2D.

Granted, there had also been a fair amount of times when she just crawled in bed with him just because she found it more comfortable and she enjoyed his presence. Still, she had always been the one to take the conscious action of seeking 2D, and very rarely, if ever, was it the other way around. At this point 2D cut his thoughts short when he noticed Noodle shiver, turn on her side, and curl up into ball, and for a moment he just looked at her wit puzzled expression, as he didn't quite understand why she had shivered or curled up.

Then it hit him. She was cold! He cursed himself inwardly for been so stupid that he had had to stop and think of _WHY_ a person would shiver and curl up in their sleep. It should have been _obvious_ to anyone else. After all, they where pretty deep under the ocean, and the further down you are, the colder it is. It had taken 2D's body a good year to get used to the cold, so it was no wonder that she was cold.

Shaking his head at himself, he threw away his hesitation and crawled into his bed, and laid on his side facing the same way as Noodle, placing arm under his head for comfort and the other over Noodles midsection.

Noodle subconsciously noticed the new source of heat and leaned towards it immediately, happily accepting the heat that was somehow familiar to her. Somewhere, in the back of his mind 2D was mildly surprised by Noodle leaning into him and relaxing so quickly, but he was too tiered to dwell in the thought and promptly slipped into slumber.

-The Next Day-

Noodle

Noodle stirred slightly, her mind ever so slowly stepping into the realm of the conscious and living, but she didn't mind at the moment. She had just had one of the best sleeps she had had in years. It wasn't a nightmare, it wasn't even just empty darkness (and that had been all she would have dared hope for in her last few years), it had been similar to floating in a warm and peaceful cloud for the most part. Slowly she became aware of her surroundings. That she wasn't actually in a cloud, but in some sort of soft surface, with something covering her. Then she noticed pleasant warmth on her back and round her stomach.

Sighing happily she leaned in a bit more into the warmth. Then the warmth shift slightly, and she heard a slight sigh that _hadn't_ come from her and someone breathing. And then it clicked: _Someone_ or _something_ was right behind her!

"KAiiii-YAH!"

Her eyes snapped open and with a loud fighting scream she leapt out from whatever was covering her, landing in a wide fighting stance on the bed, ready to fight whatever it was that had captured her to the death. However what she encountered wasn't what she expected.

"KUAAH!" A distinctly male voice shouted out loudly, a most intimidating sound to Noodle, seeing as the sound came from an obviously powerful voice, almost human even! But there was beauty and surprise in the scream, and she knew from experience, even with her mind foggy as it was from her recent slumber, that a powerful voice often meant good lungs, which meant good stamina, which for her meant trouble. The fact that it had some ethereal and heavenly, yet very human quality to the voice served only to put her more at the ready.

She knew from experience that things that weren't human, that sounded human, were dangerous, and even more dangerous when there was something especial about their voice, seeing as it often hinted at some kind of ability. Be it designed to enthral you, scare you, confuse you, or even make you fall a sleep, any ability like that was dangerous, and she had been lucky to escape those she had encountered with such abilities. All this crossed her mind in an instant, as she watched a tangled mass kick up and thrust around until it jumped out of the soft surface she was standing on, and seemingly hid from her sight.

Suddenly in a very quick movement, a tangled mass of what seemed to her as cloths and robes shot up from under the bed, a mass of spiky blue hair protruded from a gap between the cloths, and a single big pure black eye, as black as night, was all that was visible through an other gap. She gaped at the thing for a split of second. It was big! At least six feet tall, and his reflexes were obviously good as it had surprised her by its sudden appearance from over the edge of her soft platform.

The being lifted its arms out, all covered in the blanket like cloths making him look somewhat like an intimidating ghost from an old black and white movie. Her eyes immediately widened behind her mask. _–Oh shit! Magic!-_ With out hesitation she tackled the being around its mid section, hoping to stop him from whatever magic or powers he was about to unleash, or at least distract him enough that she could do something about him.

They tumbled to the floor, becoming what was seemingly a flaying mass of blankets, shouts, kicks, and punches, most of the two later mentioned coming from the small Japanese girl wearing the cat mask. The thrashed and rolled around for a good three minutes, before the being finally managed to entangle her with his cloths and blankets, restricting her movement for long enough that the being could entangle her more and land on top of her and pin her down.

She struggled against him, but the more she moved, the more entangled she became and the tighter the being held her down. Finally, after a while she quitted struggling and shouting. _–DAMN!-_ Noodle thought to her self. _–So much for being a mighty super soldier. I am so tangled and wrapped up that I can't move! Maybe I can use the secrete code word...-_ Again she struggled, and she was going to open her mouth, when a large hand covered her mouth. But even so she struggle again for five long exhausting minutes for both of them, only to stop again.

Noodle cursed inwardly again. _- Even if I could, I doubt it'd do me much good. What use is busting out super martial arts moves with devastating accuracy and strength, and not feeling pain for a few minutes at the time, if I can't move? Hell, I can't even properly shout or talk right now. Damn these cloths! I guess this is truly it then… I'm sorry guys. Sorry 2D. It seems like it's over for me. I tried, I really, really did try.-_ A single tear she shed from behind her mask, and a quick shiver ran across her whole body, before she finally was as still as a statue.

She could tell it he was tiered too, it had been a close match, she hadn't even received a single punch or kick from it, yet she had, for the first time ever, lost a fight. She considered struggling again, even though it was pointless, but she could sense that no matter what she did; his iron grip would not falter, and would hang with that fierce grip on to her even in death. But still, she had decided that if she was going to die, she would do so bravely, for her guys, for her self, for her family. She would honour them in death by being as strong as she could, even in the face of this formidable foe. So she was kept herself still and defiant.

She didn't closed her eyes as the black eye closed in on her face, slowly it came down to mere inches from her own eyes that where hidden behind the mask. Those eyes some how calmed her and enchanted her, almost as if it was sucking her into its bottomless depths. She assumed it was a small mercy of this creature before it killed her. A way for her to escape the pain of the ending he was about bring to her.

She took in a deep breath, unable to look away from that eye, slowly relaxing under its stare. Then something unexpected happened. It talked. Not like the screams before, or his initial shout. It talked, like a proper human, with an English accent even! And worse of all, the voice was very familiar. The voice of 2D. She knew subconsciously that there was a high possibility that this being was only copying his voice out of her memory to get her to stop struggling in the future, that is, if she had one. She had met others that had tried to use Murdoc's and Russel's voices to get to her before, but for some reason they never used 2D's. Still, it left her stunned.

"Have yew calmed down now?" The being asked wearily, receiving only a slight nod that Noodle gave him unknowingly.

Then, the being did something unexpected yet again. He pulled back his face from hers until he was about a foot away, and then he let go of one hand, the one over her mouth, and brought his hand towards what she assumed was his head, and grabbing the cloths, he pulled them off his face.

2D

2D had been sleeping soundly, quite happy in his world of dreams, when suddenly he was awoken by a loud scream, which startled him and forced him to awaken.

"KAiiii-YAH!"

"KUAAH!" He screamed back in surprise, as he flayed around, his eyes snapping open, but seeing nothing, as something was covering his whole head, and in his mad kicking and flaying, of limbs due to his rude awakening, he fell from the bed. He quickly stood up again on reflex, his mind and body already going into survival mode, and quickly turned his head towards the source of the scream, causing his right eye to be uncovered by the blankets that now hanged onto him in a tangled mess.

He was staring but not really seeing anything, still groggy from his slumber, to the source of the shout, and began to raise his arms to protect himself from an attack, as his mind began to make out that there was someone in front of him, and a possible threat. However, it wasn't a punch he received, but a tackle by the cat mask person, which quickly sent them rolling flaying around in the floor, as his mind quickly began to catch on the situation and reminding him who the cat mask person was, which sent him into full defence mode.

He struggled against Noodle, doing his best to stop her movements and tangle her up, since he wouldn't hurt her. She, however, was obviously unaware of who h was, because she was obviously doing her damn best to hurt him, which in turn made him glad that he had this improvised armour of blankets, which somewhat dampened her blows, except for a few he got on his left side of his ribs and on his left cheek, right above his jaw, where there only a single thin layer of cloth covering him. He was sure he was going to have a few bruises later. Fighting a super soldier was no joke, and he now realised the full extent of why that was. For her small and somewhat malnourished frame, she was putting a surprising amount of force on her blows.

At a length, however, he managed to entangle her enough that he could safely pin her down. He brought her hands up over her head and pined them down with both of his hands, and at the same time he used his body weight to pin her stomach and legs to the floor. He finally had her pinned. Now he hoped there would be a small break so that he could catch his breath quickly and talk to her.

However, there wasn't a short break like he hoped there would be, so that he could catch a bit of his breath and talk to her. Instead, she struggled more to free herself, and he had to struggle to pin her down without hurting her, which was much more difficult than he would have thought, seeing as she was shouting and trying to kick and punch him and anything she could to get him to release her. Fortunately for him, she just managed to get more tangled up, until she finally stopped for a moment.

But he only managed a couple of deep breaths before he saw her begin to pen her mouth, obviously intent on saying or screaming something, and whatever it was, he had a feeling that it would only make it more difficult to hold her down, so he did the only thing he could think of doing: He released on of his hands that was holding down her hands and covered her mouth. And again she struggled against his grip, which was now harder for him to keep along with his balance, but he hanged on, refusing to let go of her.

For what seemed to both of them an eternity, but was in reality but five minutes, she finally relented. He took this chance to breath in as much air as he could without hyperventilating, while keeping his eye on her. He saw her shiver slightly for a moment, and for that moment he could feel all of her fear and regret. He suddenly felt a pang of guilt, thinking that he had somehow hurt her, but then she was stay still, and he could tell that she was defiant towards him, which he now realised was because she probably saw him as a threat

Naturally he felt hurt that he was seen as a threat towards her, and he leaned into her face trying to understand why this was. As he leaned in, he realised it was probably because he was all wrapped up in blankets and utterly unrecognisable. Inwardly he sighed in relief, she didn't see _him_ as a threat, it was just she saw him as a threat. Now it made total sense to him. (Though, if he had said that out loud to most anyone else, they probably wouldn't get what he was saying).

So he closed the gap between their hidden faces until he was only a few inches from her mask and observed her for a moment longer, his eye fixed upon her mask's eyes, behind the which he could sense Noodle's eyes staring right back at him. Finally he decided to break the silence and try diplomacy with her.

"Have yew calmed down now?" 2D asked wearily, receiving only a slight nod from a stunned Noodle, or at least that he assumed was stunned, judging by both, the feeling she gave off now, and the green eyes that he was able to make out from behind the slender holes for the eyes of the cat mask, which were covered with thick but clear plastic.

Satisfied by her response, he pulled back his face from hers until he was about a foot away, and then he let go of one hand, the one over her mouth, and brought his hand towards his head, and grabbing the cloths, he pulled them off his face quickly, revealing his bright blue hair first, which was quickly followed by the rest of his face.

When the final piece of cloth from the blankets fell from his face, they both just stared at each other for what seemed both an instant and an eternity, though it was just a few seconds in reality. However, in those few seconds a thousand questions, answers, emotions, and thoughts where silently exchanged between their locked eyes. Granted, there was more emotions and wordless thoughts exchanged than anything else, but who could blame them? There were only three important questions which needed to be answered right then and there.

The first and second, where, naturally, "Are you 2D?" from Noodle, and "Are you Noodle?" from 2D (who still was half convinced this was all a dream or hallucination). The third, however, was shared between the two of them, and said question was, "Is it really you?"

The eyes of both confirmed their suspicions promptly, leaving them to bask in the presence of the other for a few treasured moments. Finally, Noodle stirred slightly from underneath him, causing him to quickly remember that he was pinning her down and that he probably was hurting her wrists and stomach after pinning her down for so long.

So he did what most people would do in that in that situation: he jumped of her right away and began apologising. Unfortunately, due to the mess he had on the floor and the bed sheets that tangled up his legs, he ended up falling backwards before he could finish saying anything more than "I am so…!" and the unsaid part, the sorry part, was replaced by a yelp of surprise as he realised he had lost he footing and was now falling backwards.

He rolled by himself in a jumble of limbs and bed sheets before finally coming to a stop by crashing against his bed with his back, thankfully his head hitting on the mattress instead of on the wooden rim of the bed. Still, he was aware of Noodle's presence in the room, and tried to stand up quickly to properly talk to her and apologise for pinning her down.

However, he had just barely stood up before he was tackled, again, by the Japanese girl, barely giving him time to draw a breath from his tumble before she mad contact with him. This time though, the intent wasn't to immobilize 2D or hurt him, rather the tackle was more of a tackle that was used to hug him tightly.

Thankfully though, this time they rolled into the bed, rather than on the cold and messy floor of his room. Though, this time, when they came to a stop there were three major differences compared to their previous rolling, flaying, and stopping act. The first was that they weren't fighting like their lives depended on it. The second was that Noodle was on top of him instead of the other way around. And the third was that Noodle was tightly hugging him around his mid section.

It took a minute for 2D to realise this though, since his head was still spinning from all that rolling and flaying about. When he did come around to realise this though, all he could do was stare at Noodle for a moment in surprise, before his mouth slip open into a wide smile and he hugged her back, one arm around her waist and the other around her head. Just like the old days. And that was something that he had wanted to do for a long, _long_ time.

They just laid there for a time, a good quarter of an hour in fact, before 2D finally broke the silence, as he began to run his hand slowly through her hair.

"Hey… Noodle?" He called out to her softly, looking at the small girl that held on to him with her face buried in the blankets that covered his chest. It surprised him how little she had grown height wise. Nonetheless, it was obvious she had gained some of the qualities of a woman, despite her slow growth through out her life.

Noodle responded by shifting slightly, bring in her head up just enough so that she could see him with one eye. "Mmmm?" She responded.

"I missed you." He said with honesty, giving her whole heartedly a wide smile. However this brought forth an unprecedented reaction from Noodle. Something that he had not expected at all from her at the moment.

At first she only shivered slightly at his words, which made him cock his head to the side slightly, then she began to hiccup and her shivers continued as she buried her face against his chest again. Now he frowned a bit and began to sit up. Next she stopped shivering and fell silent as he finally sat up. He brought his hand slowly down towards her cheek and called her name softly. He could faintly hear her sobbing.

"Noodle, are you alright?" He asked with concern, his hand finally touching her cheek with concern. Then she erupted into a full throated crying and sobbing, rivers of tears pouring from underneath the mask, which startled him, almost making him jump right then and there. However he somehow stayed sitting down, but he panicked for a moment, fully believing that he had somehow just injured Noodle. How he had just injured his Noodle, the tough, super soldier Noodle that was always happy, he hadn't had the faintest idea, but he was frantically trying to apologise and console her for whatever he may have done to her, bombarding her with apologies and soothing words.

After a while her sobbing and crying subsided slightly, and he was able to think a bit more clearly. He decided to go with what he felt was best, which was holding her tightly and whisper soothing and consoling words to her ear rather than bombarding her with anxious and frantic words and apologies, which didn't seem to do that much good.

The new approach yielded results promptly, quickly calming down Noodle as he ran his hand through her hair and held her tightly, while he whispered to her sweet and calming words, telling her that he was with her now and everything was going to be alright, amongst other things.

At a length, Noodle's full blown crying subsided into a soft sobbing, and soon after into occasional hiccups. At this point, 2D was just glad that she wasn't crying anymore, and wondered how all the other people in the mansion could _NOT_ hear this? Then his eye caught sight of the digital clock on his wall. 3:47 AM. No wonder no one heard them. They weren't only deep under water, but they where also very early in the morning. No one would be able to hear them at this hour.

Looking back down at the girl in his arms, he lifted her face towards his gently so that he could see her eyes through the mask.

"Noodle? Whot wus that? And can yew take that mask off? I wanna see your face."

A pause followed his words and Noodle froze again. She had expected this, but she wasn't ready for it. And apparently 2D could sense that, because before she lie or try to diverge the subject, he spoke again.

"Well, if you kinda too late, er, early for this. Its not even 4:00 AM yet. And I can tell something's bothering you Noodle, but you don't hafta' tell me now. Take your time, and when you are ready to talk, I'll be here for yah." He said all this with a smile as he looked at her, and she almost lost it right there again, wanting to throw herself on him and cry her heart out and tell him everything right then and there, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Not yet anyways.

"Noodle, tell me, why the mask? Please take it off." 2D asked pleadingly, to Noodle who actually panicked for a moment. She couldn't show him! It was ugly! It wasn't a hatefully bruise that refused to heal as quickly as normal bruise would heal on a normal person. It was receding painfully slowly, and she couldn't let 2D, or anyone else for that matter, see her with that black bruise on her face.

Her silence saddened 2D, and his smile fell. "…Noodle? Please let me see you. I 'aven't seen you in five years! Or…do yew hate me now?" He asked sadly.

This caused her to panic again, _Oh no! he thinks its his fault!_- She thought in panic. Her mind raced, as she was very aware that 2D was very pure and sensitive in regards to his actions towards others, and would easily try to take the burden from others and loaded upon himself, weather it was justifiable or not, as long as he could make someone else feel better he would do it.

But she couldn't come up with any excuse without revealing some part of the experiences she wasn't ready to tell anyone. So she said the only thing she could: What she thought about herself at the moment.

"No 2D! I could never hate you!" She said truthfully, making him look at her with some relief, " But I just don't want you to see me right now. I'm Ugly! No one can see me, they would be disgusted!" She said with obvious hatred for her face, which left 2D with his mouth agape. This was so not like Noodle! Noodle had always been beautiful and confident! What could have possibly happened to her?

"Noodle! Tha's not true! You are beautiful, no matta' whot anybody says! Come now, it can't be that bad. Please let me see." He begged, however Noodle was silent.

Taking Noodle's silence as an okay, he cautiously approached the mask, hesitating half way, waiting for her to slap his hand away or give any other sort of signal that he shouldn't do this. When no such response came from Noodle, he proceeded and slowly took it off. His eyes widened for a split of second when he saw a the huge bruise which cover a quarter of her face around her right eye. She had been hurt! By what? By Who? When? Where? however he quickly focused on the rest of her face and left those questions for later.

"See?" He said, "You don't look so bad. In fact, you are still beautiful Noodle." He said with a smile. Truth be told, he still found her beautiful, despite the bruise. And in his opinion, it was kind of his fault. From his point of view, he was the one to blame for letting Noodle get hurt, for letting Cyborg be created and suffer under Murdoc, for Noodle disappearing, for Russel leaving, and so on. It was almost to the point where, somewhere in his mind he half believed that all the torture he received from Murdoc was deserved to some degree.

At this comment all she could do was widen her eyes in surprise and hug him tightly to keep her self from crying in relief that he hadn't pushed her away or shunned her because of her eye. Meanwhile, 2D just hugged her back and petted her head until she calmed down a bit again.

"Say, Nood's?" He directed himself to her, using her old nick name, and giving a large yawn. "What do you say if we go back to sleep and talk in the morning, eh?"

"Hai, that sounds like a good idea" Noodle quickly agreed. And with that, 2D unwrap himself from all his bed sheets and used them to cover himself and Noodle as they laid themselves down to sleep, Noodle curling up against 2D's chest and 2D with a hand wrapped around her mid drift. In a matter of seconds, they were both already in the land of dreams.

2D

2D woke up gradually, slowly become aware of the light that was filtering through the window, which was guilty for awakening him. Slowly he rolled his body to face the ceiling as he opened his eyes, and for a while he just laid there, staring with unseeing eyes at the ceiling and its maze of pipes and ducts. His face blank from any emotion and his stillness was absolute. If anyone didn't know better one would think he was dead, and the eerie glow that was present in the room due to the light that filtered only through the small round window would just have made said person feel a chill to their bones at the sight of him.

This person would have probably fainted by what happened next then; He, for no reason what so ever other than perhaps he just felt like it, he slowly pulled his upper half of his body up with his abdominal muscles only, not bothering to use his hands or to stop staring at the ceiling, his neck and arms totally relaxed as his torso finally past ninety degrees, causing his head to finally slump forwards, much like a puppet whose strings had just been cut. Then his arms, seemingly coming to life under their own volition, grabbed on to the mattress and turned his whole body towards the edge of the bed, dragging his legs along until they fell. And for a moment he was again frozen, in his slumped forward and dead-looking state, as if time had no bearing on him.

Then he heard a creaking noise that came from his the hatch that acted as the door of his room. Naturally, his instincts kicked in, and his head suddenly snapped up, with his eyes that where like black voids and mouth slightly agape, to look at the now half open door in which stood a couple of men that where frozen in place from average stature. One was holding a camera, and the other a blow-horn. They two pairs of brown eyes stared widely and fearfully into 2D's eyes of absolute darkness for minute, and for that minute neither side said a word. Then the eyes of the two unknown fellows rolled into the back of their heads and they fainted, landing with a dull thud on the floor.

What happened next was quite literally a messy blur. 2D yelped and jumped of his bed running towards the fallen people, which caused certain small Japanese girl to be suddenly awakened and subsequently went into defence mode, sending a fighting scream and flying kick towards 2D instinctively, who had somehow tangled himself up with the blankets of his bed in his rush and was no in the middle of loosing his balance, when he tripped on one of his many possessions that where strewn across his floor and collided in mid fall with a flying Noodle, receiving a kick to his gut and tangling her up with him in the process. This was followed by both falling on the ground, tumbling and rolling in a flaying mass of limbs, bed sheets, and confusion until they collided with the still fallen guests that laid on the floor with a loud crashing noise, and finally ending with a huge pile of seemingly random limbs and bed sheets which emitted pained moans in four different voices.

And it had all been caught in the camera which was still recording, and for now forgotten on the floor of the room.

**Hey all! So yeah, I don't know what was exactly going through my mind after I was past half way writing this chapter. I don't even remember why it turned out this way, but there you are. I think the story is kindda beginning to take its own life, if you know what I mean. Though weather it will turn out to be a Frankenstein or a beauty I don't know, and I guess we will have to wait to find out.**

**Sorry if this wasn't a very eventful chapter, But my brain has been half dead since about a month and a half ago due to severe Physics and Calculus homework over-load. (Honestly! Who is expected to do 10 pages worth of physics daily PLUS 5 of Calc, PLUS any projects and assignments the give out, PLUS the other two classes? MADNESS!)**

**Anyways, yeah, sorry if this chapter was disappointing for you, but I can't bring my self to dislike it. (at least not right now anyways. Maybe after my diploma exams, WHEN I ACTUALLY HAVE SOME TIME TO RELAX, I will, but then again, maybe not).**

**Like My teacher said when I told him I wanted an extension for the assignment: This is MADNESS!**

**P.S: IF your teacher ever does say that respond with: NO! This. Is. SPARTA! (If you are lucky and your teacher is fan of the movie 300, he might give you a bit of slack for that one day. It worked for me. Though alternatively he could send you to detention if he is in a bad mood…)**

**P.P.S: Alternatively you could say; This. Is. [Insert name of your school here]**


	7. Chapter 7

**And the Dragon has returned! Hello to you all, Hope you are all doing fine and hopefully not half dead, because I know what that feels like and it ain't fun at all.**

**So, just before I start, I **_**HAVE**_** to tell you guys this! There is a FanArt from my story! YAY! Here is the Adress:**

**.com/#/d3hth7x**

**Now, just a few thanks to **_**love-is-free23**_**, **_**Innamara, **_**and**_** UnknownRyan, **_** who were the first three people to read my last chapter (God you guys are quick! That's a good thing though! =D) and review! These three are also some of the people who keep me wanting to keep writing. I am vey glad you guys like my fanfic. I will try to up date more often, but Diplomas start this in a week so Its going to be real tough.**

**So! Last thing here, for those who wanna know, in the story we are currently in the last week of September. Maybe you can figure something out from this? Hmm? I guess we'll see =p.**

**Now, onwards with the story! Let us progress! **

Chapter 7: Learning

Murdoc

Murdoc was currently surrounded by piles upon piles of books and scrolls of magic, voodoo, alchemy, and potions. It had taken a while, but Murdoc had finally found a scroll which could help him. Grumbling, he went over one of his many scrolls again, reading over the final details of an enchantment that was originally used for shrinking ones enemy. He had been up all night trying to find something like this; he had been so busy that he hadn't even had his rum yet! But he knew this was necessary if he was going to have Russel, one of the Worlds Greatest Drummers of all time, be able to play properly again, _and_ to get on his good side. One of the _LAST_ things he needs is getting into the bad side of a giant that already is on the verge of choosing to squash him into the after-life, as he had almost done yesterday, had it not been for 2D.

He finally memorized the spell and the ingredients necessary to carry out the enchantment, which, in his opinion, wasn't all that complicated. A few salamander scales here, a kiwi's feather here, a bit of octopus tentacle over there, blah, blah, blah, a few other items thrown in plus a few words and done. Satisfied that he knew what he was going to do, he got himself all set, gathering all the ingredients to make the potion which he then would use with the enchantment to shrink Russel.

It took the better part of an hour, but by four in the morning he was finally finished the God-forsaken potion. Now he just had to let it sit for about two hours before he had to give it the last sprinkle of clay and a drop of vanilla. Unfortunately, during that time, he had to get working on the making of the wood-charm which would act as a catalyst for the potion and enchantment, because, with Russel's size, a simple potion with a reinforcement enchantment wasn't going to cut it. He was just too _big_ for regular methods.

So he had to step it up a bit by creating a catalyst that would help speed and reinforce the potion and enchantment, so he could fix Russel in one go instead of many short steps. That wouldn't do, not just because Russel would be mad, but also because otherwise Russel wouldn't be able to play for a while, and because he shuddered at the thought of paying for Russel's food. They would run out of food in a few days time, a week at the very most even with their reserves. No, that would definitely not do. This had to be done fast and efficiently.

So Murdoc set himself to work on painting and charming a slab of polished drift wood that would act as the catalyst. The process was long, as it required brushing and painting detailed symbols and then dipping into a series of salves and balms that would coat the symbols, which then had to be redrawn on top of the now-dry coating. All in all, by the time he had finished everything it was a six thirty in the morning.

Exhaustedly, he turned to the window, only to see the sun was just breaking through the horizon. He gave a disgruntled grunt at the sight, irritated at the thought of spending the whole night working and not getting any sleep. He knew he had to do it, but that didn't mean that he wanted to do it.

Grudgingly he gazed at the horizon, where the sun was beginning to rise, from his window for a good ten minutes, before a thought hit him like a lightning, his mismatched eyes glittering at the thought immediately and his mouth crooking into a scheming smile.

_The guests haven't left yet, they should be gone yet, at least not all of them. Maybe I can pay a couple of them to go do a favour for me… Yeah, that wouldn't be too bad. They get a bit of pocket money and I get my entertainment._ He chuckled evilly at himself, quite happy at the mischievous scheme he had come up with.

Quickly he stood up and went to the lift, which took him to a level where the rooms that were bellow the mansion but above water level where. Said rooms were used for the filming and décor groups, hoping to find someone that was up at these early hours of the day.

He set forth, searching the hallways, and by a quarter to seven he struck gold. He found a couple of men of average height talking as they finished packing up all of their equipment, debating where they thought the location of the new video they where hired to work with was going to be.

Naturally, Murdoc barged into the room with loud greetings for the room mates, startling them but earning him their attention. After all, they had never heard of Murdoc waking up early….Ever. This was bound to be interesting.

"Good Morning you people!" Murdoc said loudly, but not quite screaming. A wide smile plastered on his face.

"Morning Mr. Niccals." They responded in synchronization, slight curiosity showing in their faces.

"So, I see yew guys are packing up now, eh? Good, good. But I got one last job for yah. I will even throw in fifty extra dollars for each one of you fo' this quick, ten minute favour. How does that sound to yah, eh?"

"What is this favour?" One of them asked, as the other cautiously eyed Murdoc. Murdoc's 'small favours' had caused problems to more than one of their collaborators on several occasions.

"Oh, nothing too complicated, this is a give away really." Murdoc said dismissively, inwardly smiling at himself. "I just want yew to give 2D a bit of a scare."

The friends looked at each other, then back at Murdoc. That didn't sound too bad. It was just a harmless prank right? No problem. "Sure Mr. Niccals. But how do we go about doing that?"

"Oh, that's real simple. Come with me." Murdoc said as he turned on his heel and led the pair to the living room in the mansion's ground floor, and instructed them to sit down and wait for a minute, while he left and retrieved their 'tools' for their new assignment.

A minute later he returned, in one hand he carried a camera and in the other he carried an air-can blow-horn. The collaborators looked at the items, and then at each other, then they looked at Murdoc, not quite sure how they where supposed to scare 2D with a camera and a blow horn. They thought he had meant something like wearing a zombie mask and jumping out of a hallway to scare 2D or something along those lines.

Murdoc rolled his eyes at them and proceeded to explain the plan to them with an annoyed tone, causing his accent to become more marked "Look yew dullards, it's not that hard. As you might have noticed, the halls are mostly empty. That means most of tha people are asleep, right? So, I want yew ta go and wake up 2D with a fright with the blow-horn and record it! Its not so complicated yeh?"

The two collaborators, somewhat ashamed that they hadn't caught on earlier, nodded at Murdoc with understanding.

"Good." He said, calming down slightly. "Now this is how I want you to go about it, so listen up you two goons. I want yew to turn on the camera about three steps before yew guys are in front of the door. Whoever has the blow horn has to be in front of the one with the camera to get a good view of what 2D does as soon as the horn is blown. Got it?

As a bonus, if it makes me laugh hard enough, I will give you each fifty more dollars. Deal?"

The two collaborators looked at each other for a second before grinning widely and turning back to Murdoc and saying with excitement; "Deal!" After all, it was a simple plan. What could possibly happen?

Ten minutes later

Gigi and Jojo

The two collaborators were currently about three or four steps before finding themselves in front of 2D's door, silently taking their items and trying to decided the best way to go about their job.

"Okay Jojo," Said the blond collaborator in a hushed voice, "Let me see if I got this straight. I get the camera, and you get the blow horn, then we look into the camera and explain that we are about to scare the crap out of 2D. Then, we open quietly the door and film for a moment or two to check if he is a sleep, if he is we greet him, and then we surprise him the moment he shows his back to us, and if he is asleep, we just walk up to him and blow that horn right on his ear. Right?"

"That's right Gigi." Said the red-haired collaborator with the same manner as his partner had, in hushed whispers to avoid any kind chance which may cause 2D to wake up. "Now lets go! Time to earn ourselves some easy cash!"

Jojo nodded and turned the camera on with a with a touch of his finger, and they proceeded with explaining the plan to the camera. They followed up by stepping slowly towards 2D's room, cautiously opening the hatch so that it wouldn't squeak or anything of the sort. They had never seen the singer more than once or twice up close during their stay, so they where unsure how to act afterwards with him, but they chose to forget that for now. They could make up with him later. For now they had to focus on the money.

They finally opened the door about half way, just enough so that they both could stick their heads in and look at contents of the room. But what they saw was something they had not expected all. And it left them rooted on the spot.

What they saw wasn't the tall and active singer of Stylo or Dirty Harry, which where the two videos that they had had the pleasure doing with Gorillaz. No, they didn't see that. They saw a pale and handsome face with seemingly no eyes, as if they had been plucked from his face a long time ago, the mouth slightly hanging open revealing a bit of his teeth. His blue mane seemed to be made of consuming blue fire in the lone ray of sunlight that hit his face from their angle, the angled light casted ominous and terrorizing shadows on his face, and his chest was not rising and falling perceivably, like one would expect of living and sleeping person. No, he didn't look like he was even a person right now. He didn't even look like a recently deceased man. He looked like Death itself.

What happened next chilled them to the bone so strongly, that they could almost feel frost coming over their joints and coating their ligaments. Screaming was impossible. Moving was impossible. Looking away proved futile too. Even their breathing was shallow, as if breathing would cause Death to come after them if it was too loud.

As if to prove this theory correct, the apparent Death Reaper stirred, moving as if it had suddenly been possessed. His upper half of his body up was lifted as if by seemingly effortless levitation while his arms and head hanged completely relaxed and limp, dragging behind his torso. The living corpse finally went past ninety degrees, causing his head and shoulders to finally slump forwards, much like a puppet whose strings had just been cut. Then his arms, seemingly coming to life under their own volition, grabbed on to the mattress lightly, the fingers lazily twisting themselves with the mattress and blankets, and turned his whole body towards the edge of the bed, dragging his legs along until they fell to the ground, tangled with blankets up to his waist, giving him the look of wearing a red tunic that was slung from one shoulder across his torso, and winded around his legs and waist to the floor. And for a moment he was again frozen, again much like a puppet had been cut of his strings, in his slumped forward and dead-looking state, as if time had no bearing on him.

Their heart was now beating loudly, screaming to them to run, to run as fast and as far as their legs would take them. But they couldn't. It was as if the frost had now taken over even their brain, freezing its gears and slowing their progress to just above the speed of a crawl. A moment of silence, and then a creaking noise was heard, but to them, who where so enthralled in the presence, it barely registered. They didn't even realise that the creaking noise had been from them leaning on 2D's door. The spectre of Death, however, seemed to have very much taken notice of this noise, his head snapping upwards immediately and meeting their wide eyes of fear with his empty eyes. And although they could not have distinguished the direction of 2D's gaze, they knew he was staring at them, and they felt as if that look could go through and see through their very souls.

Their heart hammer in their ribcages even faster, their breath had stopped completely without them taking notice, and now, as Death stared into their very eyes, they began to sweat and then… Blackness. Their eyes rolled into the back of their heads and they collapsed on the floor, passing out from the mental stress they had just suffered. Gigi dropped the camera, which had recorded their everything, and it rolled away a good ten feet, still recording everything, including the chaos that came over the room later.

Murdoc was going to definitely be pleased, and most likely, laughing for hours on end.

Murdoc

Murdoc was laughing so hard that he couldn't breathe as he observed the footage of his two goons. He actually had laughed so hard that he had fallen from his chair, smacked his head on the floor, and was now rolling on the floor laughing his head off while shaking and grabbing his sides.

"**HA**HAHAHAHAHAHAR-*Deep Breath*- **HAA**AA!HAHAHARHARHARHARHAR! Hahahahahaaa-haaa….Oh Lord, that was just great!" Murdoc finally said after a ten minute long laugh, if not longer. He finally stood from the floor very shakily, little giggles and tremors of laughter still shaking him.

"Well, a deal is a deal boys! Hehehehehaaa… It wasn't quite what I expected, hehehehe, but what you have given me is even better! Here! Have your well earned money!" Murdoc said as he gave a hundred dollars to a pair of somewhat bruised collaborators, who took the money gratefully. It had taken them the full trip up the elevator to Murdoc's studio that what they thought was the very embodiment of death was actually 2D, and when they finally figured it out they couldn't help but laugh too.

In fact, they had quite enjoyed the look on each other faces when they saw the footage with Murdoc, and would be undoubtedly telling of this story until they were old and wrinkled. Maybe even longer. All in all, they had managed to get a good laugh and a hundred dollars each as reward with nothing more than a few bruises in the process of the acquisition of the cash that they had been promised. Not a bad deal in their opinion, even if they had almost died of heart failure.

"Alright dismissed, hehehehe, man was that ever good." Murdoc said as he dismissed the slightly battered collaborators. But it wasn't after the pair had left the studio-study level that it dawned on him.

"Oh, shit." He muttered to himself. He had just realised a tiny little flaw, a miniscule problem that he had overlooked, that was in reality very big: Literally. He had forgotten about Russel and Noodle. Noodle had been caught up in his little trick, and she would probably tell Russel. That was going to be trouble. Especially when he didn't know how might the Japanese girl react to seeing him after, what? Four, four and a half years now? He had not exactly always had the best interactions with the girl, and he had been the one to convince her for the "El Mañana" video for his own ambitions, which had very nearly resulted in a deathly tragedy, and out of the group he had been the first to give up too. All in all, he could guess that he probably was her least favourite of the band. This could be bad. Really bad.

_Like teenagers say this days, FML! _Murdoc cursed inwardly, and hurriedly gathered his potion and charms to get Russel shrunk, and fast. The last thing he needed was an overprotective 'Daddy' Russel rampaging in his precious plastic beach. _Hell No! No one is breaking this beauty. _He thought with determination as he ran to the lift, the horrible prospect of the possible demise of his island fuelling his hasty advance.

Ten minutes later

Russel was still sprawled on his side, taking up, not halve of the island necessarily, in fact, his height was only about 80% of the diameter of the island, but due to the fact that he was sleeping with one arm under his head and the other stretching outwards and reaching the shore above his head, he was definitely blocking half of it.

It had been a long time since Russel had had a decently sized chunk of land to sleep on over the last few months since he had jumped in the ocean, so much so that he didn't wake when a green man, tiny in comparison to himself, that was wearing a sailor hat and carrying a small green bag began screaming for him to wake up. All he did, was try to brush him awake as one might try to shoo a fly while sleeping.

And fortunately for Murdoc he had missed, otherwise he would have found himself at sea judging by the splashes he heard soon after wards from an old TV set that had been swept up by Russel's hand effortlessly. Naturally, Murdoc proceeded to close his mouth and not scream his head of at the gigantic drummer after that, lest next time he wasn't as lucky as he was just recently.

Grumbling obscenities at his own stupidity for not thinking of that possibility earlier and at Russel for being such a heavy sleeper, he set himself to work, struggling to climb over Russel's enormous body until he was standing on his forehead.

"This had better work!" He muttered a bit breathlessly at no one in particular, as he extracted from the bag a blue flask of glass which contained the potion he had spent all night working on.

Cautiously he dipped a big painting brush in it and set himself to draw the arcane symbols that where required for the enchantment on Russel's forehead, taking care to not mess up, and after a good ten or fifteen minutes of painting the runes on Russel's massive forehead, he finished, pleased by his work.

Next he brought out the driftwood-charm and placed it on the center of Russel's forehead before he climbed down the side of Russel's neck, using the shirt's folds as grab-holds to lower himself safely to the ground. Once he was close enough to the ground, he let himself fall the remaining four feet to the floor, resulting in an awkward landing which was followed by tripping over his own feet and face planting on the ground. Grumbling angrily at pulling such a 2D-like move, he stood up and dusted himself off quickly, making sure that Russel hadn't moved and that no one had seen him, he proceeded with a sigh as he place a and on the back of Russel's head, and commenced the long spell that would hopefully shrink Russel.

2D

After the collision, 2D and Noodle had been dazed, which was to be expected after the second big tumble they took in less than six hour, and this time with an other two people thrown into the mix. However the two newly awoken guests woke up with a start, quite awake once they saw 2D's infinitely black eyes so close to them, literally just a foot away from them. It also didn't help that his hair was sticking up defying gravity much like a wild flame does, or the fact that they saw a seemingly disembodied arm and leg, which obviously didn't belong to either of them or the embodiment of death that they now had in front of them, sticking from underneath the cloths that covered said spectre of death, or the fact that said unknown limbs were still twitching as if they had been recently detached from their former host.

As it might be guessed, the reaction at this sight from the guests was rather startled. Bolting up right, they made 2D and Noodle fall off them and setting them to roll across the floor again, and in a matter of a mere second or two they scrambled out of the room at full speed, but only after grabbing the incriminating camera and blow-horn, making sure to slam the door shut tightly behind them, oblivious to the fact that they had just thrown off two of the greatest musicians in the world to the floor. Or to the fact that just after they slammed the door shut 2D stopped himself and Noodle by unintentionally crashing head-first into one of the large pipes which protruded from the floor and connected to the ceiling.

The impact left a shallow but rather long gash on his forehead, just under his hair line, the pain of it making him roll to the side with a groan as he pulled Noodle along with him, unconsciously making it so that she was on top of him and he was laying flat on his back. But then again, even if the two collaborators had known about this things at the moment they probably wouldn't have stopped and turned around, because at the moment, they were scared out of their minds.

2D and Noodle, on the other hand, were an extremely confused pair. What the _hell_ had just happened? All 2D knew was hat he had seen two people faint after he did his little 'Lazy-stretch' routine and he had tried to rush to help them. Next thing he knew, he was rolling on the floor with Noodle and there was a pain on his stomach, which was soon followed by another tumble and roll with his Japanese friend. And now his head hurt.

Noodle was more at a loss than 2D for once, not really knowing anything else other than she had been startle into awaking, attacked in the general direction the noise had come from, the she made contact with something that resembled hard muscle. The next thing she recalled was a blur as she seemed to begin to understand that she had been spinning and twisting as she fell with someone, who she realised now was 2D, and that this roll was quickly followed by another.

Now, this would have usually caused them to start blabbering incongruent stupidities like 2D usually did after a rough awakening. And they where about to, however the two of them stopped immediately after they realized they were in an awkward position. 2D was laying on the floor flat on his back, his shirt ripped diagonally from the right side of the neck down to just an inch or two bellow his last left rib, revealing about half of his defined abdominal muscles, his whole left arm, and his left side of the chest.

Noodle on the other hand was down standing on her hands and knees on top of him, an out stretched hand on either side of his head, a leg on either side of his abdominal core, and the shirt which she had borrowed from 2D for going to sleep more comfortably (after she had awoke and tried to kill him) was slightly slipping, her right shoulder poking through the neck of the shirt which was obviously too large for her.

As if that wasn't bad enough, both of their hairs were flowing wildly due to the dual falls they had taken, both were breathing heavily (2D due to the kick he had received unexpectedly and the fall, Noodle due to being awakened so suddenly and also because of the fall), and both of their faces were slightly blushing.

Obviously, it took them both a moment to take in the situation, and once they had they were just frozen in that position for while. And for that while, neither of them spoke, they barely even breathed.

-_Oh crapola-_ 2D thought, _-This is sooo awkward. It looks like _I'M_ getting rap…!-_ 2D's thoughts were interrupted by the creaking sound of his door opening. He was about to rush and suggest Noodle to get off him before the door was fully opened, and it looked like she was about to do just that. But then they both heard something happened which made them freeze again.

"Hey, 2D," A feminine voice with a Japanese accent called out to him from behind the door as it opened, "I just wanted to let you know that break fast is ready and that…!"

The voice suddenly froze in shock at the sight of 2D and Noodle. Noodle was also frozen at the sight of the newcomer. Noodle was staring at a perfect replica of herself (save for the fact that she had a much healthier complexion than herself. Meaning that she didn't looked half starved and as a result of that, her breasts and hips seemed larger and more appropriate for an eighteen or twenty year old). She was staring at Cyborg Noodle.

2D instantly forgot about the pain on his forehead, in fact he didn't even notice that blood was not only seeping out of it, but that it was also beginning to run down his face and spreading. He had only thought before all hell broke loose. It was a simple though, common even. But it summed it all up at the moment. The thought was as follows; _– Oh Shit.-_

**Heya all! What do you think about this eh? Sorry if it was a bit uneventful, but, as you probably have guessed, it was necessary for the build up of the encounter for Cyborg and Noodle (while helping poor old Russ to regain normal size again).**

**Oh! By the way, I would also like to thank **_**stephamoo**_** who was my 23****rd**** reviewer (Yay 23! =p. ) and to whom I want to thank for taking the time to review my story. I can stress enough how much the review keep me on task and encourage me to write more and better. It is an excellent source of feed back to me too, so please keep reviewing. Let me know your thoughts on the story (By the way, **_**UnknownRyan,**_** thank you for your detailed opinion, it is highly appreciated! =D). **

**Anyways, back to the matter at hand. Next chapter will reveal the first meeting between Noodle and Cyborg! Huzza! Hopefully you guys will like it. =)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Heya all! Dragon is back! I am re tweaking this chapter a bit compared to the original, hopefully you guys will like it! Please let me know what you think alright?**

**And since last time that deviant art link didn't show up, I am reposting it here!**

**(dot)com/#/d3hth7x**

**It wont let me put an actual dot were I put "(dot)" for some reason, but there you go.  
**

**And just in case this doesn't show up again, the authors name is " freeman10022 " and the title of his work is " 2D. Ch.4: Singer of the Soul "**

**Right then, lets start with my thanks for all my readers, named and unnamed, which encourage me to keep writing. All reviews and comments are appreciated.**

**Now then, that said, how about we get going on that story, eh?**

_Previously in __Chapter 8: Learning__…_

…_._

_-Oh crapola-_ 2D thought, _-This is sooo awkward. It looks like _I'M_ getting rap…!-_ 2D's thoughts were interrupted by the creaking sound of his door opening. He was about to rush and suggest Noodle to get off him before the door was fully opened, and it looked like she was about to do just that. But then they both heard something happened which made them freeze again.

"Hey, 2D," A feminine voice with a Japanese accent called out to him from behind the door as it opened, "I just wanted to let you know that break fast is ready and that…!"

The voice suddenly froze in shock at the sight of 2D and Noodle. Noodle was also frozen at the sight of the newcomer. Noodle was staring at a perfect replica of herself (save for the fact that she had a much healthier complexion than herself. Meaning that she didn't looked half starved and as a result of that, her breasts and hips seemed larger and more appropriate for an eighteen or twenty year old). She was staring at Cyborg Noodle.

2D instantly forgot about the pain on his forehead, in fact he didn't even notice that blood was not only seeping out of it, but that it was also beginning to run down his face and spreading. He had only thought before all hell broke loose. It was a simple though, common even. But it summed it all up at the moment. The thought was as follows; _– Oh Shit.-_

Chapter 8: Meet Your Reflection

Cyborg and Noodle

-_Oh Shit-_ That was all that 2D managed to think before the storm began descend upon the room. Not that he could, or would, blame either of them for what they did after wards, after all Cyborg was taught to defend the Gorillaz band members from the very first days of her life, whatever the cost may be. On top of that, to her they were not just a duty, the band, well, Murdoc not so much but specifically 2D, were the closest thing that she had to a family and given the compromising position that she had found them in it was no wonder she did what she did.

On the other hand, Noodle was always protective of 2D, even as a newly arrived child to KONG, and the lack of his presence for so many years had only made her more fierce to defend him. Added to that, her stay in that other dimension had taught her that it was often a good idea to attack first and ask questions later; otherwise you might never get the chance to ask anything to anyone ever again.

So it was no wonder that moments after he had finished his thought Cyborg pulled out a couple of long barrelled revolvers from their sheaths on her belt and aimed them at Noodle, who jumped off 2D and leaped behind one of the large piped on his room, which easily covered her completely. This was followed by Noodle picking up some of 2D's scattered possessions, which included a few flick knifes from his collection.

However, Cyborg was not one to sit around idly while her opponent prepared. Any fool could tell you that was a bad idea in this situation. Giving time to the enemy to plan a counter attack was a big no-no, especially when the enemy was a highly trained super soldier that had being surviving on her own in an alternate dimension for three years or more, which had probably sharpened her survival instinct and combat skills. So, as theory dictated, she tried to manoeuvre around the large steel pipe.

Unfortunately she soon found out that the intruder was adept at dodging and throwing items, when she fired a bullet at the intruder's head, only to have the intruder jump out of the way and throw a knife at her in the process, which would have likely pierced her left shoulder had she not jerked aside at the last second. This was a problem. The target was small, as small as herself, and nimble, and the terrain was definitely not helping, all those steel pipes and old statues in the room provided her with plenty of cover for her small frame.

_No good from this distance. _Cyborg thought, _I need to get closer._ She quickly proceeded to close the distance between herself and Noodle, ready to deflect any incoming hits or improvised missiles which she could have come up with in those brief seconds.

_Shit, _Noodle thought, _She is too far. Need to get close. A distraction, I need a distraction._ And without further ado she improvised a simple distraction which she had used often before. It was very simple strategy in reality, throw two medium sized projectiles at the enemy to draw their attention and she would dash towards her at an angle so she wasn't seen until she was almost upon the enemy. _I hope this works._

Cyborg halved the original distance between them, only to have two action figures hurled at her face. On reflex she focused on the targets and managed to deflect two action figures by shooting them out of the air, only to receive a solid punch in the gut a moment later, which was followed by a disarming palm strike towards her left hand. The intruder was now right besides her! One of Cyborg's hand guns sailing across the air to the side. This was followed by a third strike, this time a punch directed at Cyborg's solar plexus (where the ribs join just above the abdominal muscles), which was deflected by Cyborg's now empty left hand. At this point, Cyborg was forced to throw her second weapon aside to protect herself. Not that it mattered she supposed, after all, guns were very unpractical at best, dangerous for herself at worst, at such close ranges when you didn't have time to pull the trigger, let alone aim properly, especially with an obviously skilled and experienced opponent that wouldn't allow the gun to come close to any vital organs and could have disarmed her if she took as much as a second to aim or to place the gun at her hip.

They proceeded in this manner of close range combat, neither able to strike the other more than once or twice before being countered or deflected by the other. However, the blows that got through their defences were considerably lacking in power due to the girls being forced to retract their limbs quickly to protect themselves from the other's attacks.

Still, it was quite an impressive display of skill and after the three-minute hand-to-hand showdown that the two Noodles's had, it was briefly brought to an end with four quick movements. The first was an attack by Noodle, attempting a swiping chop to the right hand side of Cyborg's head, which was followed by the second movement, namely Cyborg deflecting the strike with her right hand. This would have usually being advantageous for Noodle since she had now unbalanced Cyborg slightly by forcing her to block the strike, however by deflecting the blow Cyborg had opened up Noodle's movements slightly, just enough so that Cyborg had an instant to counter attack, but not spotting her own shift in her hips due to her slight instability, she failed to notice that she herself had just opened up just as much as Noodle had. But Noodle noticed.

And that's when the third and fourth strike occurred simultaneously, Cyborg and Noodle each using a kick to attack the other at the same instant with the same force. The result was that they flew in opposite directions for about seven feet each, only to stare at each other from their face down positions, and then look at the floor between them. Just five feet from each of them, one of Cyborg's guns lay on the floor.

At the exact same moment they looked at each other and stood up, about to scramble for the guns. Whoever reached their gun first and shot it, won. The other would most likely die. It was that simple. So clear and so simple that 2D grasped the concept before the two of them could even start making a move to get up and dash for the weapons. And at that moment, to him time seemed to slow, as if God was giving him time to make a decision.

It is said that the human brain can process over 300 frames of images per second, but because it would be inefficient to always run at the maximum amount of images per second, it only usually runs to about 25 to 27 % of its actually capacity, which is around 80 frames of images per second. Furthermore, a human usually only uses near 100% of this potential when one is in severe danger, and they often focus so much on the images that they become paralysed and don't even think about moving. Even when they do manage to move, because they are seeing four times more in the same amount of time than they did normally, to them their body seems to move four times slower too.

This is similar to what occurred to 2D when he realized what the girls meant to do with the guns that now laid on the floor, only that it was a bit more…dramatic, shall we say, for lack of a better word. He didn't just slowdown his perspective of time or increases his reflexes slightly, his whole _being_ became faster. His legs moved faster, his arms were faster, his eyes, his brain, his thinking, everything became super-enhanced to keep up with his new perspective of time, which as luck would have it, at the moment it was five or six times faster than it normally was.

To put it in simple terms, from 2D's perspective Noodle and Cyborg, whom he had so often regarded as superbly fast when it came to their reflexes, became terribly slow to him. The way their chest heaved from the hard breathing, the way their clothes rippled around their bodies as they shifted, even the way they stood up from their laying down positions was slow enough that it seemed almost gravity defiant to 2D at the moment.

But he had no time to ponder these thoughts, because even with this sudden advantage, they only had to cross five feet distance between them and the weapons. He had to cross fifteen to just get in range to either grab the guns or stop them both from using them. So he just did the only thing he could think off doing right then and there. He stood up and bolted towards the guns.

Ten feet left. Noodle and Cyborg were already standing up, their bodies leaning forwards as they began to rush at each other.

Seven feet left. The girls were dashing forwards, legs curling as they began to crouch to dive for the weapons.

Five feet left. The girls had dived for the weapons, their hands now curling around the handles of the guns.

Three feet left, both of them were rolling to deflect the energy of their own dive into the ground. They were half way done their roll. By the time they finished it, they would have their guns pointed at each others head, merely five feet from each other. Worse case scenario, they both would shoot and both would die. 2D was _**not**_ letting that happen.

Zero. They were brining their guns down, the barrels of the guns mere inches from aiming at the heads of each girl, the guns' shinny metal skin glistening darkly as it came down. But he was there.

_STOP!_ He wanted to shout out at them as he jumped in between them. But there was no time; words were just too slow right now. Instead he acted.

Right before the guns were a single degree of an angle from aiming at the girls heads, he seemingly materialized in front of them, kneeling between them with one knee on the ground and the other foot planted firmly on the ground to grant him balance. A hand shot out recklessly for each gun, grabbing their barrels near the trigger and pulling them off course, unknowingly applying pressure to the end of the barrel with his forearms just as the triggers were pulled. The girls had barely time to register that he was there as both of them pulled the trigger. They didn't have time to even be able to do much more that widen their eyes in surprise and horror.

Then there was the loud double bang from the guns, and red splatters of blood spread across the room as he heard the two simultaneous explosions, small crimson splatters and blotches hurling their selves at 2D's face and hair. A force pushed him off balance, causing him to fall backwards in the direction he had come from.

Now time seemed to slow for the two girls, but they where frozen, each believing that they had shot 2D and killed him, horror clearly lining each of their faces as they watched 2D's head jerk back and his body slowly fall backwards and to his side from his previously crouched position. His body hit the ground once, then his head made contact with the floor. His body bounced slightly once, and then he was still. Blood staining his arms and torso, and a blotch of the red liquid of life stained his hair and face. To the girls, this was the single most horrifying moment in their lives.

They had shot 2D.

2D

2D didn't have time to do anything other than act. So he instinctively reached out for each of their guns, not caring which part of the barrel he grabbed as long as he grabbed it and pulled it out of the hands of its wielder. So he did as his instinct demanded, closing his eyes he grabbed hold of the guns near the trigger and pressing the lower section of his forearms against the gun barrel's opening, he yanked as hard as he could the twin guns at an angle towards himself and away from the girls.

Even with his new gift 2D barely managed to pull the guns away from them as they pulled the trigger and the perfectly synchronized explosions resounded through out the room. Instantly, the force of the large guns and the added momentum of his own reckless pull on the guns, pushed him off balance and he began to fall. At the same time, 2D felt splatters of warm liquid pelting his face and hair, a few of them hitting him right under and above his left eye, causing him to jerk his head back violently on reflex.

2D almost instantly realised what the liquid was, and his face drained of color as if it had been washed up in bleach at the realization. Blood, that's what had just been splattered all over his clothes and face. His heart sunk at the prospect of not having made it in time, that he had failed to save either of them, or worse both of them. That couldn't happen! He would be alone again! They would die! _THEY_ would be alone again! He couldn't let that happen. That _couldn't_ happen. Life couldn't be that cruel… could it?

He couldn't bear it, it if they both died he wouldn't be able to take it. Not after he had just gotten back Noodle, not after he had justbegan to see the true release of Cyborg's soul, not after he had _just _felt alive for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime ago. He wouldn't be able to take it. It would break him.

Then his shoulder hit the floor, followed by his head. A dulled thumping sound was heard as his head hit the hard plastic and metal floor and then… Blackness. 2D was swallowed by the darkness of his own mind.

Noodle and Cyborg

As soon as his head hit the floor it was as if the imaginary chains, which had tied Cyborg and Noodle so completely before as they watched 2D fall ever so slowly, dissolved into nothingness. Instantly they leapt towards him, one in each side of his fallen body, crying silent grief-stricken tears with such intensity that one would have thought they were trying to make whatever death-reaper which might have come to collect his soul pity the three of them enough to forgive him this once.

Each quickly moved their shaking hands towards 2D and they turned him hurriedly to face the ceiling so that he was laying on his back by silent agreement, their prior issue seemingly irrelevant and worthless at the moment. Indeed, in an instant all the previous killer intentions and thoughts of malice were dissolved and forgotten, and all that was left currently was their unbearable grief.

They saw his ghostly white face once they finished turning him, and suddenly their bodies gave out, their spirit bent, and they fell upon 2D's chest crying with renewed strength, and this time their tears were accompanied with mournful crying. Noodle the Super-warrior and Cyborg the Mega-soldier, two of the most battle hardened fighters in the whole world had had their fighting spirit quelled and their will subdued in less than a minute time. Both done in by the same blue haired man who had rooted himself deep within their hearts and minds.

Then they heard a low moan and the body they assumed dead underneath them began to shift, his eyes began to flutter open, and a sort of dry coughing escaped his lips.

"2D!" Was the simultaneous response that such actions produce from a couple of very relieved girls that were still puffy-eyed from all their crying. The two girls quickly proceeded to give 2D a long and strong hug. Well, attempted to anyways.

"YA-OUCH!" 2D screamed loudly, a searing pain ripping through his forearms as they leaned over them and pressed them against his sides. The scream resulted in two very startled Noodles quickly backing off from the singer almost immediately, which was followed by inwardly cursing themselves for not thinking about being more careful with him.

"Don't do that," 2D whined, "Me arms and head 'urt." It was apparent that whatever phenomena had helped out 2D hadn't made him completely immune to pain.

The girls couldn't help but to smile at him. He was alive! He wasn't dead! And if he could whine like that, he probably wasn't in a life threatening condition. Or at least, not yet.

"Yew girls okay?" 2D asked with concern, and he was answered with eager nods of assurance that allowed him to breathe a sigh of relief before his tone turned very serious, well, as serious as a dazed man can get anyways, "Tha's good. Don't you girls ever do that again yah hear?"

Again they nodded at him eagerly, promising that they wouldn't do it again. They didn't want to have to go through this again. Next time, 2D might really die. Shuddering at that thought, they focused on him again remembering that, though he was awake and talking, he was injured and the danger of death by blood loss was something that was certainly very real at the moment.

Quickly they set about to examine his injuries, which judging by his complaints where on his arms and on his head. To their relief, the wounds were not as bad as they had feared, but they were definitely not as pretty as they had hoped. They had expected a nice clean hole which could be easily sewn back together and hidden. However, when they examined his arms they found that it was the underneath of 2D's forearms, which he had pressed against the openings of the gun barrels, had been grazed by the bullets, tearing the skin and some of the flesh in the pathway of the bullet, leaving a shallow foot long bloody streak of raw flesh diagonally across the underneath of both forearms. Thankfully the bullet had not hit anything important like bones or arteries, otherwise they would have had a serious problem.

Next, they checked his head, finding a long gash in his forehead right bellow the hair line. Thankfully, the injury was very shallow and was simple to fix. It had only torn a few layers of skin, not quite reaching the bone, making it a simple matter to patch up. It would take only a few stitches and it would be as good as new in a few weeks.

It wouldn't be that difficult to fix him up, but they would have to remove his tattered shirt to examine for other cuts and bruises and to be able to properly patch him up. The last thing they needed was the dirty shirt to cause an infection on the wounds right after they had sterilized them.

"Hey you, umm…" Noodle said to Cyborg, trying to think of her name, which she realised she didn't know.

"Cyborg." 2D said to Noodle helpfully with a smile.

"Thanks, 2D." She said with a bit of an embarrassed tone. It wasn't like her to forget anybodies name, or address anyone as 'Hey you'.

"Cyborg," Noodle began again, "Can you go get the first aid kit? I don't know the layout of this place. I'll stay with 2D and try to hold back the flow of blood however I can."

Cyborg hesitated for an instant, wondering if it was alright to leave 2D in Noodle's care, but the singer seemed to trust her, so she quickly nodded at Noodle and opened 2D's 'secret' doorway to his washroom, where the she knew the first aid kit was in the large white cabinet by the mirror.

While Cyborg retrieved the kit, Noodle wrapped up 2D's arms as best as she could with a couple of old shirts to slow down the bleeding and set her self to attempt to slip 2D's shirt off, but he winced when she so much as moved his arms more a couple of inches, so lifting them over his head would likely hurt a lot more. In the end she decided she might as well cut off the shirt, it was ruined anyways.

She stood up and looked around for the flick knives she had thrown earlier, and found one of them stuck in the wooden bookcase, the blade buried two inches deep in the oak wood. She retrieved the knife and headed back towards 2D, and, once she was by his side, she kneeled down besides him just as Cyborg came back with the large medic kit in her left hand and a bowl with water in the other.

Cyborg glanced at the flick knife in Noodle's hands and then at Noodle, who quickly replied to the unspoken question, "Well, we need to get his shirt off, but he can't lift his arms up enough to take it off. So we might as well cut it off, it's all stained and shredded from the fall anyways."

Cyborg nodded in agreement and kneeled besides the dazed 2D, who now focused on her as she set down all the stuff she was carrying. She opened up the medic kit's lid and pulled out a syringe and a plastic flask that contained some kind of liquid that 2D couldn't identify. He watched as Cyborg drew some of the liquid on the syringe and

"2D," Cyborg said, "This is an anaesthetic. It's going to put you to sleep for a while so that it won't hurt while we patch you up, is that okay?"

2D looked wearily at the syringe's needle. It wasn't exactly a small needle, and he wasn't exactly fond of needles either, but he figured that it would make it easier for the three of them if he was asleep, so he agreed to it and watched as Cyborg inserted the needle in his arm and emptied his contents into his blood. The drug took effect quickly, and in a minute he was already feeling sleepy, and soon he was asleep.

Cyborg and Noodle set to work quickly, deciding to first tend to his arms and head and then to the rest of his body, and thus the shirt would be spared from being cut until then. Still, it took them the better part of an hour to clean and fix all the damage done to 2D's arms and his head. They had to clean his wounds, disinfect them, sew them up, and lastly they had to wrap his arms and his forehead in some clean bandages to hide the stitches and keep the wounds clean.

They worked mostly in silence, only breaking it to ask for some item or to briefly discuss how to best wrap up the wounds. By the end of it all, his arms had required dozens of stitches, and his head a few more. Nothing too deep, thankfully.

Noodle took a deep breath and let it out, then she grabbed 2D's flick knife and said, "Well, now that the main wounds are covered, let cut that shirt up and check out if there is anything that needs fixing in there."

"Hai," Said Cyborg in agreement, as she took out her own knife.

Between the two of them, the shirt was cut from top to bottom and across the shoulders in seconds with surgical precision, though what it revealed was not exactly what they had expected. It was better.

Under the baggy and tattered shirt laid a toned torso with defined muscles, albeit some what skinny, probably due to some of the starvation tortures Murdoc had done on him some of his drunken rages. Still, it was rather surprising for both of them, Noodle specifically was rather surprised by his appearance, last she had seen him he was rather skinny and his ribs were slightly visible, but now… now he was positively in shape. No wonder that she had been taken down by him earlier. Even Cyborg that had been with him for the last three years or so was rather surprised. Now that she thought about it, not once had she seen the man shirtless before, and upon further examination, she thought she understood why.

Thin white scars covered his body, some were old and faded, others were fresher, more noticeable across his firm skin and muscles. _There must be a at least a dozen scars here, _Cyborg thought,_ no, make that two dozen._ Three stood out amongst the rest though. They were old, several years old actually. One ran across his chest diagonally, at least a foot across, that one must have been from the time the zombie with an axe had taken a swipe at him. An other one ran up his side, from his hip up to halfway to his armpit. That one must have been from when Murdoc stole his kidney. The last one was a jagged line that ran from his solar plexus down to his waist line. That one must have been from the time Murdoc tried to steal his liver and sell it in the black market.

Two pairs of emerald eyes drank in the view of his toned body. Despite the scars, they couldn't help but wonder what the rest of him would look like without his clothes. But they managed to shake off the thoughts, albeit with some difficulty, and returned to scanning for any bruises, broken bones, or cuts which the singer might have had, lest they became infected or something of the sort and cause a problem later on for all of them.

Thankfully the search revealed nothing more than a few bruises. As always, 2D's ability to withstand a lot of punishment baffled them. The impact on the uneven and hard floor of plastic and metal should have caused more than a few minor bruises, especially with the force that he jumped away from them and crashed against it. Still, they supposed it was a bit more than natural talent. Murdoc had helped him practice. A lot.

The only thing left for them to do was put a new shirt on 2D and wake him up. The Drug must have had already worn off, and by now he was just sleeping on his own right, so all they had to do is shake him awake gently, lest they opened his recently patched up wounds up again.

"Hey, 2D," Noodle called out to him, while Cyborg lightly slapped his face, "Wake up 2D. Twwwwoooo DeeeeEEeee, wake up already."

After a few more moments of this, 2D's eyes began to flutter open, and lazily look around himself, slowly trying to recall what the hell he was doing on the laying down on the floor. Then it all rushed back too him, the fight, the guns, the mad dash to stop them, the blood, everything.

Instantly he bolted upright, pushing off his arms, which instantly sent twin shots of pain up his arms, which in turn caused him to yelp in pain and fall to the side, where Cyborg caught him before he banged himself up on the floor again.

"You should avoid doing that." Noodle said.

"Yes, it could hurt." Cyborg agreed.

2D grunted at them. "I noticed."

He looked himself over. He was now wearing a long sleeved black shirt and his pyjama pants, and under the sleeves of his shirts he could feel the fresh bandages that had been wrapped around his wounds. And by the feel of it, they had also stitched him up rather nicely.

It made sense, he supposed, because as long as he wore long sleeved shirts for a couple of weeks no one would notice his arms' injuries, and as for the forehead, they could say that he fell, which technically was true. As long as they stuck with that, Murdoc and Russel would never know about their little incident, otherwise they would have a lot to explain to Russel and Murdoc, and that could definitely end badly.

"Let's try to not do that ever again, okay?" He said with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Okay." The girls responded eagerly. They had no wish to ever go through that again. It was quite the horrifying experience. If he had died for real they didn't even want to imagine what their lives would have been like.

At this point 2D's stomach rumbled loudly, making the other girls look at him with raised eyebrows. He had been shot not an hour ago and he was hungry?

"Um, Cyborg? What was that you said before abou' breakfast?" He asked as he blushed a light shade of pink.

"Oh right," Cyborg said as she remembered her original purpose for coming down to visit the Blue haired singer. "Breakfast is ready, there are bacon and eggs and some toast. The coffee should be done by now too. Though by now it's probably cold."

"It doesn't matter," 2D said cheerfully, "I am so hungry I could eat a horse without salt or pepper." And with that he promptly headed towards his bedroom's door while the two girls looked at each other with raised eyebrows. He had just gone through all that and now he wanted to eat?

"Are you guys coming?" 2D said over his shoulder as approached the opened the hatch that was his bedroom's door.

"Hai, we are coming 2D." Responded Noodle as they both looked back at him.

2D smiled at them a wide smile, showing off the gap between his teeth before turning back to the hatch, unaware that the simple pure hearted smile had made the stomach of the girls start fluttering.

It took the girls a few seconds to snap out of the unknown fluttering feeling only to find the black eyed singer struggling to open the hatch. He was turning it, but he was only managing to do so slowly, and by the looks of it, it was also somewhat painful.

Quickly the girls approached him, and Noodle pulled him gently away from the wheel of the hatch while cyborg grasped the wheel, which caused him to look at them with confusion.

"2D, don't overexert your arms" Noodle said as she pulled him back a bit by the upper arms. Inwardly she gave a small gasp of surprise when she felt his newly acquired muscles that were much bigger and solid than before from her memories. She had seen 2D's body, but now that she held his arm, she realized the full extent of his transformation. It was no wonder that he had been able to hold her down this morning when she mistaken him for some monster. 2D had, against all odds, gotten stronger despite Murdoc's obvious mistreatment and lack of proper food. Actually it felt quite good to her, the new strength and warmth that was apparent through his clothes was almost luring her towards him.

"Noodle is right," Cyborg said as she began to turn the wheel of the hatch, "It's no good to us if you work your arms enough for them to start bleeding again. The bandages can only soak up and stop so much blood."

"She is exactly right 2D," Noodle continued, pushing aside the thoughts of 2D's muscles, "And if they start to bleed again that's not just going to be bad for your arms, it could also seep through the bandages and reach your shirt. And you can be sure that if Russel or Murdoc see any blood on your shirt, they are going to start asking questions."

2D just stared at them for a moment. _Weird,_ he thought, _they are getting along surprisingly well considering that they almost killed each other a while ago._ He toyed with some ideas at what could have caused he sudden change, but in the end he decided it didn't really matter and shrugged it off, nodding at them in agreement. It would do them no good to have Murdoc and Russel on their backs right now, especially after the tension between Russel and Murdoc was still so high. The last anyone needed at the moment was to give those two a reason to increase the tension between them.

The girls smiled at him once they saw that he understood their arguments. It would just make their lives that much easier if he was aware of his limitations for the time being. It would also help him recover faster. Even though the wounds were shallow, they would take at least two weeks to heal.

_Then again,_ Noodle thought, _this is 2D who we were talking about. The man who should have died countless times over from all his accidents and all of the abuse Murdoc has thrown at him. I mean, seriously, how many people survive two car crashes like that, and the surgery at Murdoc's hands without anaesthetic, or even worse, that Axe to his chest by that damn zombie? This guy has more lives than a horde of cats!_

Cyborg was turning the wheel much more easily than 2D could with his current arms, and quickly opened the way for the three of them to step out in to the hall way and began to walk towards the lift.

"Wait," 2D said just before they stepped into the lift, "I just realized something."

The girls looked at him and then at each other, then back at him. "Well what is it 2D?"

"I umm…" He began, "Well, we forgot to do something. Just look at me, I still have blood in my hair and face. And yourselves! You guys look like you were dragged by a tornado, no offence to you guys or anything."

The two girls eyes widened slightly at the realization. How could they have been so stupid to forget something like that. What good was it to hide his arms when his face and hair are caked in dry blood? If anything, that would be worse than having his arms covered in blood and stitches. And it would only be worse if they saw them looking like they had fought a wild cat or something. Their hair was so messy and they were full of minor scratches and small bruises, and Noodle was even wearing 2D's shirt still! What would Murdoc and Russel say?

"Right," Said Cyborg, "Then we better go and have a shower and change."

"Er… I can't." 2D answered awkwardly.

"Why?" Noodle asked with curiosity, "The bandages could easily be replaced. It wouldn't even take us ten minutes to do so."

"Erm… its not that Noods…" He continued, "The thing is that, I umm… I can't really bend my arms to ninety degrees to wash my head 'cause it hurts too much." He finished with some embarrassment. Just bending his arms to about 45 degrees to open the hatch had stung and bothered him a lot. He didn't even want to know how much it would hurt to wash his head with his arms as they were right now.

"Oh." Cyborg and Noodle said simultaneously, as they understood what the singer said. But it took them a couple of extra seconds to realise the _real_ implications of what 2D had said. He needed help to take a shower. That meant that one of _them_ had to help _him_ take a shower. And the implications and images of that thought made them both turn a deep shade of red as blood rushed up to their faces. They did the only thing they could to avoid been seeing so embarrassed. They looked everywhere but at 2D.

"Yeah… so, um," 2D continued as he closed his eyes trying to find a solution to the problem, not noticing the reaction of the two girls. "Could yew help me wash my face and my hair? We could just use the sink to wash the blood of me face and hair."

"Oh." They responded again, much to their relief and disappointment, he had meant for them to help him wash off _just_ his hair and face. Nothing less and nothing more.

"Yeah, sure." Noodle said trying to hide her previous reaction.

"No problem." Cyborg said, trying to pretend that she had known all along that was what he meant. "There is a washroom right here on the left."

They stepped out of the lift and proceeded to the washroom, were 2D bent over the sink and the girls set to work, Noodle taking care of his hair and Cyborg dealing with the blood on his face.

2D thought it awkward how much concentration they were putting on such a simple task, unaware they were seeking to distract their selves from the thoughts they were having previously. Between the two girls they made short work of 2D's blood covered appearance, returning him to his usual appearance. Except, of course, for the fact that his hair was wet and more messy than usual. Oddly enough, this caused the girls to blush, though not nearly to the same extent of their previous time.

Still, 2D oblivious to this fact merely smiled widely at them and thanked them as he ruffled their hair affectionately, before he exited the room, leaving two girls whose faces were turning redder by the second. It was confusing to both of them these reactions they had been having. Neither of them had ever experience something similar in their lives, though the reason as to why that was due to very different reasons. Cyborg because until recently she was becoming more human, and Noodle because she had never really like anyone anymore than as a friend, brother, uncle, or father.

Thankfully for them, 2D had, once again, not noticed their reaction.

"Eh, 2D?" Noodle said, "We need to, er, change and stuff before we can go up with you."

"Mkay." He said cheerily.

Noodle waited for a couple of seconds, waiting to see if he got the hint. He didn't.

"Er, could you leave?" Noodle said somewhat awkwardly.

"Oh! Right." 2D said, suddenly understanding.

"Wait, actually, could you show bring me my clothes and leave them by the door?"

"Sure Noods." He said with a wide grin.

"Oh, 2D?" Cyborg spoke up.

"Yah?"

"Can I use you bathroom? I need a shower too."

"Sure thing Cy." He said, also offering her a wide smile.

And so he exited the room, with Cyborg behind him, leaving Noodle to herself in the washroom, were she quickly undressed and hopped in the shower.

_These are going to be the weirdest and possibly most awkward days of my life._ Noodle thought. The girl had no idea how right she was at the time.


	9. Chapter 9

**Heya all! It's me again! That's Right! The dragon is Le Back!**

**Well, first and foremost, I want to apologise for my delay with this chapter. My personal life got in the way. Sorry people!**

**Secondly, I wanna let you guys know how important I think it is that you let me know, if not EXACTLY then at least GENERALLY, how you think the chapter was. If it was bad then let me know so that I can make it better, if it was good let me know so I can keep it up. I honestly just want to do what's best for this fic, so please let me know, you input is very much appreciated! ****I have EDITED CHAPTER 8 AND its already posted up! If you have not read it, please check it out!**

**That said, Thank you so much to "love-is-free", "TsukiUchia13", and to my dear anonymous "Reader", who were the first three to review chapter 8. It was highly appreciated!**

**Especial thanks to "Salekdarling", who encouraged and brought to my attention some points that needed tweaking in chapter 8. Zen to you Salek! Thanks for the help =)**

**Lastly thanks to:**

Gorillaz Angel

TsukiUchiha13

Faceache

love-is-free

**Now enough of this rant that sounds dangerously close to preaching and lets get to the good part! The story! **

Chapter 9: Awkward Days- part 1

Murdoc

_Oh Shit._ That was the first thought that went through Murdoc's mind when after a whole fifteen minutes of chanting, and chanting, and chanting, nothing but that forsaken spell, nothing had happened. He had been expecting immediate results, but then again, this particular bit of Voodoo had never been done with a subject that had ingested large amounts of pollution and a considerable amount of toxins and radioactive waste. In other words, Murdoc was treading in untested waters.

No sooner had he realized this that he had began pacing back and forth, thinking of a way to remove the toxins from Russel safely. The spell WAS supposed to do a bit of that too, but only God knew what Russel had ingested. Murdoc had seen the man eat before, and he had no doubt that he could, and had, ingested more toxins than any man on which this particular shrinking spell had been done to before. Ever. And it didn't help that he was probably the biggest subject ever too.

_HOW the bloody hell am I supposed to fix 'im then? _Murdoc wondered in exasperation, _The man is a bloody toxin tank fused with a radioactive barrel! Think Murdoc, THINK! Your whole bloody island is at stake here… Maybe a more advanced cleansing spell and a bit of a catalytic charm ?But that would only exert more force on Russel's body if we focus it in only one charm, which could damage either Russ or the spells efficiency…or both… But the shrinking charm must already be working, but it must be doing it slowly… Maybe because of his gargantuan size? Its possible, he _is_ twice the size of that bloody whale._

Murdoc Grumbled loudly as he kicked aside an old tin can. He watch it for a moment bounce and roll while he worked over the problem he had presently in his mind. After about three or four meters, the can knocked over two more tin cans when it collided with them, and at that moment, the proverbial light bulb lighted up over Murdoc's head. _So if the catalytic charm's force could be divided between two other spells, it should reduce the extra force exerted on Russ because the pressure wouldn't just be focused on one area! It would be focused on two big areas! So if I use one catalytic charm for both spells, it could speed up the rate of toxin expulsion by the cleansing charm and the shrinking rate from the shrinking charm, and reduce the force it would exert on both of them, AND therefore, Russel would shrink much quicker! Brilliant! Oh Murdoc, You are truly meant for greatness!_

And with that last thought, Murdoc chuckled his impish chuckle, and raced back towards the mansion, hoping that he could find what he needed soon. Preferably before Russel woke up to find his face painted with weird aquamarine-colored pain and think it was a prank. Lord knew Murdoc didn't need an other broken nose… or in this case, a whole new set of bones if Russel were to punch him at the moment.

He paled a bit at the idea of Russel's massive fist crashing into him, which caused him to slightly increase his speed towards his books.

Cyborg

2D entered his room with Cyborg following closely behind him. Thankfully, they hadn't closed the door in the first place, so he didn't have to embarrass himself further by trying to open the damn thing. Though he wasn't really bothered by his lack of privacy that his inability to properly open or close his door meant, he was slightly peeved at the fact that he would have to ask the girls for help for such a trivial task like opening a door or washing his face. Then again, he would take his condition at the moment any day over the death of either of the girls, so it was a good trade off in his opinion.

"Right," 2D said, "The washroom is behind the bookshelf over there, and, oh wait a sec. You already know how to open it. Right. Sorry."

"No worries 2D." Cyborg answered him smiling at his behaviour. Though she didn't get why she did it, it just felt…Appropriate? It was an involuntary reaction, but somehow she got the feeling that it was a good thing to do. _Huh…that's odd. Must be one of those human things I'm learning about._

"Right. Well, have a good shower," 2D said, before hurrying to correct himself, " Not that you stink or anything, in fact I'd say you smell good, not that I have ever stopped to smell you so actually that would be a half lie, but I am sure you do smell fine, but I think that a shore would be refreshing, not that you are not a fresh-feeling person, because I am sure you are, not that it means that-! Sigh, you know, it sounded a lot better in my mind than it does now. Just forgit I said anything. Sorry abou' my rambling. I'm going to shut up now."

At this point Cyborg couldn't help but to stare at him for a second after he stopped talking before bursting out in laughter. She just couldn't help it. He just looked so cute when he was nervously getting tangled over his own words; it reminded her of a fluffy puppy with blue fur. A six foot two inches tall blue-furred puppy, but a puppy none the less.

"Don't worry about it." She said, as small bursts of giggles still assaulted her.

"Mkay." 2D said with relief. "See yew upstairs Cyborg, I'ma gonna go to have some breakfast and take Noodle's clothes and mask to 'er."

Cyborg nodded at him in agreement and opened the secret gateway behind the shelf and stepped in, closing the shelf behind her.

It wasn't until she had closed the shelf behind her that it hit her. _Wait. When did I start thinking of 2D as 'Cute'?._ That puzzled her for a moment. She had admired 2D for a while now, his knowledge of music alone was something to be respected, so much so that even Murdoc respected that part about him, but his insight and respect and his care for others was something she admired about him even more than his musical talent. But as far as she was a ware, that was all that she felt for him. Admiration. Respect. Awe.

But at some point she had started to regard him as something…different. As something that was more than that. As for when, or how, or even why this change of mindset had begun, she didn't have the slightest clue. All she knew was that something was changing inside of her that was affecting her perspective of the blue-haired singer. And now that she thought about it, it had been changing ever since he they had that talk about her soul, but lately it was changing…faster?

Puzzled by this, she finally did the only thing that she could do. She tried to push it to the back of her mind.

_It must be one of those human things._ She thought decisively before she began to strip for her shower.

2D

It took 2D a couple of seconds to remember what he was looking for in his room. He had come for Noodle's clothes, but his room was such a mess after all that had happened today that he couldn't really even see a quarter of the floor of his room! Knives were thrown here and there, old action figures laying about every were, nests of pillows and blankets were scattered over the floor like continents on the waters of earth, even his bed seemed like it had been assaulted by a tornado.

_What a mess…_ 2D thought as he scanned his room. Even for him this was excessive. Sighing, he set to work. If he was going to find Noodle's clothes, or _anything_ for that matter, he'd have to organise things a bit.

So he set down to work, throwing the blankets and pillows on top of his bed, uncovering Noodle's cat mask. He roughly re-organized his knives and action figures on counter tops and shelves, moved his odd statues back to their respective places and so on. It was only a quick emergency organization, but it made his room at least presentable. Still, it took him twenty minutes to be able to clear so much junk into a more acceptable mess, and an other 5 minutes to find all the remaining articles of Noodle's clothing that he hadn't already found.

Finally, when 2D had found the last striped stocking, 2D scooped up all of Noodle's clothes in his arms, placing her cat mask on the top of the pile of clothes, and walked out of his room. It was odd to him to think that, not even a full 24 hours ago Russel and Noodle had arrived to Plastic Beach, and that he had fought Noodle, the super soldier, twice in less than ten hours AND lived. To him that wasn't just weird, he also felt like it was an achievement, which by all rights it was. Not many people could pull one fight with out dying, let alone twice in the same day with only a few cuts and bruises and still being able to walk.

To 2D it was like a dream, like a sweet and gentle dream that somehow had become reality. Cyborg was becoming more human by the day, soon she would be vastly more human than machine, Noodle and Russ were back, Murdoc hadn't abused him in over three days, and he had been able to witness it all. His world was changing for the better at last!

THWACK!

"OWCH!" 2D yelped out as he fell backwards, his arms flinging about Noodles clothes in the hallway as he tried to regain his balance with his arms. It didn't work. He fell flat on his back onto the hard plastic floor.

2D had been so focused in his thoughts that he literally ran into the door of the washroom that Noodle was using face first.

Noodle

Noodle was now enjoying a nice long and warm shower in the guest bathroom of 2D's floor. The steam lazily floated around her as the warm water unknotted her muscles and soothed her skin. It was quite nice really, she hadn't had a _proper_ warm shower in…what? Four, maybe five years? Even in the cruise ship she had taken, before it was sunk by Pirate Jets, she never had had a proper warm shower. Instead she had had cold quick showers due to her need to stay alert, and as such, she needed to keep the showers short and cold to stay alert.

But now it was different. She felt safer with her old friends and band mates. Granted, she still was paranoid about her safety, but the thought that she was now near 2D, that she had Cyborg as an ally, and that she was protected by God-knows how many tons of plastic, wood, rubber, and steel was somewhat of a relief.

She knew it would be while before she could restore her self to something that she could call remotely close to _Normal_ for her, well, as normal as a female super soldier that lived in a band composed of her self and three men all older than her, one of whom was a white-eyed ghost terminal, an other of which was a green-skinned, magical obsessed and self proclaimed Satanist and self-proclaimed king of the music world, and the last of which was seemingly as immortal as a zombie or a werewolf in the full moon, oh and lets not forget the fact that this last one had eyes that were as black as a black hole and that he had natural blue hair and was a magnet for the hearts of women.

She chuckled at this as she finally began to turn the handle to stop the flow of warm water from the shower. How could anything, or _anyone,_ be called 'normal' under those circumstances? Honestly, they were probably the most peculiar group of people in the whole world, or at least the most peculiar band in the whole world.

Now she stepped out of the shower and grabbed a blue fluffy towel that was neatly folded over a metal bar for hanging towels, and began to dry herself with it. It was _soooo_ soft and it smelled like…. Was it butterscotch? _Hmmmm… who does this smell remind me of-?_

At this point her thoucghts were interrupted by a loud "THAWCK" which was almost instantly followed by 2D's voice screaming, "OWCH!" and a loud crashing noise.

Instantly she bolted for the door with her towel still in hand, her self-preservation and protective instinct screaming danger at her, giving her feet wings. In an instant she had crossed the washroom's floor and slammed open the door, just holding up the towel in front of her chest to provide whatever little protection it could give against any on-coming blows from the enemy.

Only that there was no enemy.

She looked around the hall from underneath her soaked hair, seeing nothing that stood out, until a second later she saw something just a few feet in front of her. The thing slowly sat up and then froze as it saw her and instantly she realized what had just occurred. That wasn't a 'thing' it was _2D_! _But why is he all red?_ She stared at him blankly for a moment as she pondered on what could have possibly caused him to have such a reaction, before it suddenly dawned on her.

She looked down at herself; she was barely covered by the towel she held in front of her, her breasts and private area barely concealed from his view.

_Oh…God…!_ Her own face grew red all the way up to her hair line and, with a shriek so girly she was surprised it had even come from her own throat, she took one quick step back and slammed the door close again.

As soon as the door had closed she locked it and leaned against it, breathing heavily and with her heart pounding in her ears. She took a moment to recollect her thoughts and calm herself down, one thing that she had learned long ago was that one makes better decisions when one is calm rather than when one is all flustered and thought her next step. She vaguely remembered 2D once telling her of a quick and easy way to slowdown and thus manage to think better. He had confessed he had had to use it more than once due to his pills.

_What did he say?_ Noodle thought, trying to block out the recent encounter with the Blue haired singer from her mind for a moment. _Something about….a shower? Yes! A cold shower helps people slow down!_

And without any hesitation she threw her towel on the floor and jumped back into the shower, but this time the water was just a few degrees shy of becoming ice.

2D

Meanwhile, 2D was sitting on the floor with wide eyes and a slightly hanging mouth, still frozen from the sudden shock of seeing a nearly naked Noodle that had just come out of the shower.

_What…?,_ 2D finally thought after taking a few seconds to reset his brain, _ The hell just happened? _

The sound of the shower starting up again finally registered in his brain and he regained the ability to move his limbs. 2D stood up slowly and was trying to block ignore the sudden images of Noodle that were triggered by the sound of the running water.

He slapped himself in the face.

_Try thinking about something else._ He told himself. _I wonder what Cyborg is doing now...?_

That turned out to be also a mistake. Cyborg was basically Noodles replica in terms of her appearance, and as such, due to a certain recent incident, he also imagined her in the shower.

He slapped himself again

_What are you? Sixteen? _He thought in annoyance. _They maybe legal but they are… what? Almost twenty? And you are twenty nine! The gap is quite significant, so stop day dreaming you blue-haired dullard!_ He scolded himself as he began to pick up all the clothes he had thrown about when he had crashed against the door.

Finally finishing that, he placed the clothes on the hallway, right beside the door, and knocked on the washroom's door.

"Um, Nood's?" He called out. No answer.

"Um… NOOD'S!" He called again, and once more no answer came. She was totally listening. There was no way that Noodle hadn't heard him that time. Due to the fact that she was a super soldier AND as a musician, 2D knew her hearing was exceptionally good. They even had had competitions to see who could hear better back in KONG between the two of them, and boy was it hard to beat her! More often than not, they had tied, and he had lost to her more than once too.

"NOOD'S! I am leaving your clothes by the door. And… er… sorry about that incident. Bye!"

And with that said, he bolted towards the elevator.

Murdoc

Murdoc was hunched over in his study over a massive leather bound book with yellowing pages. He had been flipping pages for at least twenty minute, trying to find the perfect catalytic charm that would save his green ass from Russel's massive brown fist.

"AH-_HAA_!" Murdoc screamed triumphantly, when he finally found the charm that he was looking for. It was a potent charm that was particularly malleable in terms of what it was desired for it to affect. The charm was apparently invented by some crazy alchemist called Luxo Dividi who apparently created the charm to try to speed up the process of creating his chimeras without damaging their sensitive genetic make up. The charm did work… Apparently the only problem for him was that the chimeras eventually ate him.

Ignoring the history of the creator of the charm, Murdoc began to read the ingredients for his charm. _Well, its not so hard to make…_ He thought._ Save for the fact that most of the ingredients are considerably rare or expensive! Just look at some of this stuff!...A feather of a phoenix! Three teaspoons of powdered goblin bones! A tooth of sphinx! Like you could buy that at the local corner store… Oh God! A _Dragon_ scale? God save me! I am going to go bankrupt! _

Naturally that was an exaggeration, his new album had given him enough money already to buy ten times the amount of required ingredients and still have enough to retire on with a nice life. But still, some of the ingredients of the that the book was asking for were very expensive, and even he, Murdoc, had a limited supply of such rare ingredients.

_God damn it… And out of all the things the book could ask… a piece of a dragon! They are already the most powerful living things this planet can offer and this crappy book wants a piece of one of them… Lucky for me that the one in KONG traded some old scales that had fallen off him with the dullard in exchange for some songs and stuff… Who knew that dragons liked tea and music?_

He chuckled at the memory. It was hard to believe that a dragon would sit down and talk about music with them and offer them green tea. But a now half empty jar of old dragon scales that sat on a high shelf in the study was a constant reminder of their little adventure.

"Well," Murdoc muttered to himself, "Better get to work then."

Murdoc stood up and his back made a snapping sound. "Ooohh….Damn. I need to learn to sit better, or git a chiropractor….Mmmm… there's an idea… I could get me self a nice and sexy female chiropractor, with naaaaaaice long legs and curvy body… maybe after she is done finishes doing my spine I could do her." He cackled at his own joke knowingly and made a mental note to himself to look into a female chiropractor that would be willing to come and live at Plastic Beach.

"Right," he muttered to himself after he finally stopped chuckling at his recent idea, "Back to work."

Murdoc turned around and headed towards his shelf that was labelled 'Magicz', as he liked to call them jokingly, and began to pull out all of the necessary ingredient for the alchemic brew he had to make.

Thirty-five minutes later he was finishing the brew and pouring it into a small crystal flask. He might have been finished earlier, had he not blow up his first attempt at the brew within the first five minutes of his experiment, but luckily the only damage that was caused to himself was the fact that he was missing half of his left eyebrow and he had singed his white captain's hat.

"It is done!" He whooped triumphantly to himself, and with that, he neatly cleaned up his working area (he didn't want to repeat a certain accident in Las Vegas, in which he had fallen over his own ingredients and paralyzed himself from the waist down for a whole day), and he dashed for the lift, in search of the gargantuan Russel.

Russel

Russel woke up with a colossal yawn at around nine in the morning, and was about to sit up, when a very angry voice reached his ears. He slowly opened his large white eyes, only to find a very ticked of Murdoc hanging on to his eyebrows.

"Hey! What's the big idea Lard ass?" Murdoc screamed indignantly at Russel, "I am just about to finish the bloody spell to get yew back to regular size! Stop moving damn it!"

It took Russel a moment to understand what Murdoc was saying because he had never been much of a morning person, but when it did register what Murdoc had said, he merely grunted in agreement to Murdoc, choosing to ignore the insults of the little green man, who had finally stood up again in Russel's forehead.

Murdoc dusted himself off and readjusted his hat before he pulled out the crystal flask that contained the alchemic brew and smeared it in the center of Russel's forehead, and finally saying the last words to finish his job.

"Rasketil Magus lux!"

And almost instantly, Russel began to shrink. It wasn't like he shrunk instantly back to his normal height, it was more of a gradual shrink. Russel's whole body began to shrink, and within the hour he would be half of his original size.

"Hey Mudz?" Russel asked Murdoc, finally breaking the silence between the two of them.

"What?"

"Why is it taking so long to shrink me back to normal?"

"Why? Because you are massive, that's why! Yew were at least twice the size of the whale! so you were around 70 meters tall! That's the equival'nt to 230 feet tall. You used to be… what? You were around my height so you were…Five feet and nine inches, maybe five foot ten? or something like that. Well, this potion shrinks yew about half of your size every hour, which means that yew will be back to normal in around…." Murdoc stopped to calculate in his head.

"5 hours and 12 minutes" Russel replied.

"Smart ass." Murdoc grumbled. "Anyways, yeah, yew will be back to normal in around that."

"Good to know. Now get off my head. I don't want you falling in my eye or something like that."

Russel lifted his gigantic hand and plucked Murdoc from his forehead and dropped him on the sand that covered the plastic island.

"Well, my job is done." Murdoc said with tiered satisfaction and began to wander back to the mansion, hoping for his warm bed and maybe a bottle or two of his precious rum.

"Hey, Mudz." Russel called out to him.

Murdoc barely looked over his shoulder and as he walked away. "What now lard ass?"

"Thanks."

"… No problem Russ."

And with that, Murdoc turned to face his Plastic Mansion once more and left Russel to watch him walk away.

Cyborg

Cyborg got out of the shower and quickly dressed. She didn't really care about the appearance of her hair, so she just dried it quickly with a towel and put her hat on top of it. She scanned over her appearance in the mirror. Everything seemed to be in order. Her boots were polished and well tied, her shorts were not wrinkled and she had her jacket on straight.

_Looks decent enough._ Cyborg thought to her self.

Satisfied with her inspection, she exited 2D's washroom and soon afterwards she also exited his room. As she walked down the hall towards the lift she spotted Noodle coming out of the guest's washroom fully dressed in her white dress and black-and-white stripped stockings, her mask just high enough to see her mouth. Cyborg detected a small oddity in her appearance though. Namely, she was slightly shivering and looking a shade paler than when Cyborg had last seen her.

"Are you alright?" Cyborg asked Noodle, a hint of concern lining her voice.

"Yeah…" Noodle responded quietly, "Its just that…I am cold." She settled for a half-truth. Judging by the way that this Cyborg person had fought her when she saw her with 2D, it was likely that 2D was someone she was attached to. There was no need to give her any wrong impressions or ideas.

Cyborg tilted her head to the side, sensing slightly the hesitation of Noodle to speak, but she ignored it, and gave Noodle a nod that confirmed that she understood her situation.

"Lets go up to the kitchen." Noodle said, "2D must be eating for us already, if he is as hungry as he said he was."

"He can eat for us?" Cyborg asked confusedly, she had never heard of this ability, in fact, she was quite sure that it would be nearly impossible, but if it had to do with 2D or Murdoc, you never knew.

Naturally, the oddity of the comment surprised Noodle enough to stop her in mid stride and turn to look at Cyborg with curiosity. It bothered Noodle how similar Cyborg was to her. It was like she was looking at a mirror or as if she was staring at a clone. But that was impossible. The girl was flesh and bone, but straight up cloning was impossible.

_Well_, Noodle thought,_ They do say that somewhere in the world there is an other person that looks like you… or four in some cases._

"No, he can't eat for us." Noodle answered her after staring at Cyborg for a few seconds, "It's only a figure of speech. He can't really eat for us, it just means that he is hungry enough to eat his share of the food and our too."

Cyborg nodded again at Noodle, accepting the explanation and storing it away for further reference and for use in the future. If she was becoming more human, then she might as well familiarise herself with such vocabulary.

They entered the lift and clicked the patio button, the floor of the main kitchen of the Plastic Beach Mansion. The ride brief and silent, though it wasn't an edgy or awkward silence, it was more of a comfortable silence than anything. Neither of them had anything to say to the other, or at least not without 2D being present, and as such the had no problem with the silence, seen as each girl was also engrossed in her own thoughts (in which the blue-haired singer was almost always present).

The lift doors opened with swishing sound and the music suddenly stopped, snapping back to reality the two girls. They exited the lift, Cyborg leading the way, seeing as Noodle really had no clue as to the lay out of the mansion. It was a big mansion too, almost as big as KONG had been, and it would have been easy to get lost in it.

Five minutes later the pair found themselves at the main kitchen of the Mansion, and truth be told, it definitely lived up to the grandiose of the Mansion. White sparkling walls, Crystal glasses, Plasma TV, fancy cutlery and chairs. It was all very well made and maintained. The only thing that detracted from its appearance was all the bags and cardboard boxes that were laying about besides 2D. Murdoc must have bought food by the bulk to avoid having to go to mainland very often.

2D was already sitting down with a re-heated stack of waffles and a couple of scrambled eggs in a plate, a jug of water and a cup of coffee sat in front of him. The man was obviously eager to begin eating. The grumbling stomach that sounded like a zombie from KONG and the watery mouth were an statement to that.

2D was oblivious to the presence of the two girls as he began to eagerly stuff himself with the waffles and eggs, barely chewing before he gulped it down with a sip of coffee. It was quite amusing really, it wasn't like he slobbered or ate with his mouth open or grabbed the utensils like an ape (unlike a certain green man that we all know quite well), but the way his face contorted with obvious appreciation for the food, and added to that how wide his eyes were open, it gave him a very comic expression.

Noodle observed him for a few minutes before, she nudged Cyborg and whispered something in her ear. A small smile formed in the face of Cyborg as she listened to Noodles whispers and eagerly nodded to her.

Cyborg and Noodle split up, one of them taking the right and the other taking the left, and began circling 2D silently. He didn't notice them. Slowly but surely the two girls circled 2D until they were standing right behind him. Slowly the walked up from behind him up to him, taking in only slow shallow breaths to avoid detection by 2D.

Finally they were standing right behind him, and they both leaned in towards him, each of their lips just a couple of inches away from 2D's ears. They waited for him to swallow what he had in his mouth and then, simultaneously they blew very deliberately a soft jet of air into each of his ears.

"WHOA!" 2D screamed, practically jumping ten feet directly into the air from his sitting position. It would have been impressive if he had not clung onto the chandelier that hung above him at the time like a scared cat or Scooby-Doo would have done in the Sunday morning cartoons. That just made it very funny. The fact that his eyes were as wide as platters and as white as Russel's just made it seem more funny.

Noodle and Cyborg couldn't help it. They burst out laughing. They laughed so hard that Noodle ended up falling backwards on her butt while holding her sides, and Cyborg ended up having to lean on the chair that 2D had been using to not fall over as tears streamed from her eyes from laughing so hard.

It took 2D a second to understand realise what had just happened. At first he felt indignant, but the sight of the two girls laughing so energetically softened him up and made him smile. He had missed Noodle's smile for so long, and now he had two of them! How could he _not_ smile himself?

Still he might as well make them worry a bit as pay back, no? A devious smile flashed across his face before he looked back down at them. They were still laughing. Good. He checked his arms. They were aching from the strain he had just placed on them, but nothing too bad. Huh. The wounds must have been very well treated for them to be improving at this rate.

He looked down. Cyborg and the chair were right bellow him. Not an ideal landing spot. To the left of them was Noodle. That was also a bad landing spot. To the right.. to the right were sacks of sugar, potatoes, salt, flour, and other such products that Murdoc had bought in bulk.

_Perfect_.

2D swung the chandelier slightly from left to right. When he had gotten just enough speed to clear Cyborg (very little), he let go of the chandelier. He turned in the air so that he would land on his back rather than on his already damaged arms, and landed with a loud but muffled "WUMP!" on the sacks and cardboard boxes that that were besides Cyborg. A cloud of white dust rose up from his landing place, surrounding the singer's figure. A perfect landing. But the girls didn't know that.

The sudden noise caused them to cease laughing almost instantly. They looked at the cloud of dust. Then they looked up. No 2D.

_Oh shit._ That was the first thing that they both thought as it they realised what that meant. The noise had been him falling from the chandelier! And he had his arms wounded!

_Oh God... what did we do?_ Noodle thought in panic as she and Cyborg rushed towards 2D's landing area. It took a few seconds for the flour and sugar dust to settle enough to be able to start making out figures in the landing area were 2D had landed. They began to make out the shapes and colors of the boxes and bags, the dent in the bags that Had landed on. Everything was there. Except for 2D.

"What the-!" Cyborg said, before a pair of hands grabbed Noodle and Cyborg by the hip and pulled them back suddenly.

"BOO!" 2D screamed from behind them at the exact instant that his hands made contact with the hips of the two girls, causing them to jump and yelp with surprise. 2D barely managed to jump back in time to avoid a kick from Noodle and a punch from Cyborg.

Now it was his turn to laugh.

"Hahahahaha, got you two" 2D chuckled at them, while two startled Japanese girls looked at him in surprise.

Noodle was the first to reply. "Oh, I see someone has gotten more sneaky since I last saw him."

"Girl, yew have no idea." 2D grinned, "I even managed to give Murdoc and Cyborg the slip a few times to leave this island for a while. And believe yew me, THAT takes lots of sneaky-ness."

"He has a point there." Cyborg said, "This place has as many cameras as KONG. Me and Murdoc have no clue how he has managed to give us the slip a couple of times. He was there one moment and then next he is gone. I swear he almost gave Murdoc a heart attack once or twice."

2D smiled proudly at Noodle and Cyborg, glad to be recognised at his new art of sneaking. And he had al the right to be proud, after all, how many people could escape plastic beach while being so tightly controlled? Not many, fewer still would have been able to reach land as he had before being dragged back to the Mansion.

"Well," 2D said after a moment, "If we are done scaring the beejezu nuts out of each other, how about we go an' eat, yeah?"

"Hai!" Noodle said, "I am starving!"

"What about yew Cyborg? Ready to start tasting human food?" 2D asked. This caught Noodle's attention. Had Cyborg never eaten before? But that was impossible, she would die! _Its probably some joke of 2D._ Noodle concluded.

Cyborg looked at the food doubtfully for a minute before speaking up. "Sure, why not?" Murdoc and 2D ate it all the time, it couldn't be that bad, right?

They all sat down in the table and began to eat. Much to Cyborg's surprise, she quite enjoyed the taste of the waffles with that golden liquid-like substance they called 'honey'.

After a while of complete silence, and the three members that sat on the table indulging themselves in the food's taste, Noodle finally spoke up the question that had been bothering for a while now.

"So," She said, "Why are you called Cyborg, Cyborg?"

2D almost chocked on his piece of waffle. He had completely forgotten to explain to Noodle what Cyborg was. And that was a conversation that could turn ugly very quickly.

_Oh crap. Oh crap, oh crap, oh CRAP!_ 2D thought.

"Well, hehehe…" 2D began, "Well first of all promise to listen and not go ballistic on me, at least until I am done telling you the story, and you wont try to kill Cyborg again, alright?"

This response puzzled Noodle. Why would she go ballistic on 2D? After not seeing him for nearly half a decade, that was the last thing she wanted to do. And of course she wouldn't kill Cyborg. Why would she? Its not like the thing was a demon or anything.

"Alright." She said.

2D breathed a sigh of relief and began the story.

"Well, this is what happened. This what I know about Murdoc, Cyborg, and life since I came to this Island. It al started when…-"

**TADA! What do you guys think? Not my best work, but its decent enough, I think. **

**Also, I found this on the internet, It's a radio of a fan with 2D doing Question and Answers. I think its quite entertaining. XD**

The radio transmition can be found in youtube, its title is "

**The Rusty Can - Gorillaz Talkshow No. 1"**

Here is the link:  
www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=_OTM16B2g0M

**See you guys latter! This Is Dragon, logging out!**


	10. Chapter 10

**HELLO! Its been a long time hasn't it? Well, I am here to present you with yet an other chapter my friends!**

**BUT FIRST! ****THANK YOU ALL FOR READING THIS FANFICTION****!**

**I discovered how to find how many people added you to favourites, hits per chapter, reviews, and so on (this is thanks to **Garuda 1 Talisman**) And I gotta tell you guys I was SO pleasantly shocked when I saw the stats! Here they are (as of when I am writing this):**

**Hits- 2,789…Alerts: 11… Faves: 20…Reviews: 36**

**And according to my calculations, I have at least 120 people that are following the story even if they haven't added it to their favorites! HUZZA! I feel supper motivated now!**

**So, lets get down to what you came here for, THE STORY!**

Chapter 10: Creation and Bruises

Noodle

Noodle quietly listened to 2D as he told her the whole story (as far as he knew) since she disappeared in the "El Mañana" video back in 2006. She listened as he revealed to her about the searches the band had carried out and how one by one they stopped searching for her until he was the only one left still looking for her, and how KONG had crumbled to the ground after Murdoc had set fire to a chunk of it to gather the maximum insurance.

This caused mixed feelings for her. She was happy that her band mates had looked for her, sad because they hadn't found her, angry because Murdoc and Russel had given up on finding her (though she couldn't blame them…well not too much anyways. She HAD literally disappeared of the face of the earth), it also made her angry that Murdoc had set KONG on fire, even if he hadn't burned it all to the ground, but she was overjoyed when 2D told her that he had never given up hope.

She kept listening patiently as 2D continued the story, explaining how he had bought an apartment in the nearest city to Noodle's landing site and how he got gassed by Murdoc once he declined going back to Gorillaz until he found his Noodle girl, and how he had been ship to Plastic Beach in a suitcase, and how he was kept captive in the Island.

And at that point he stopped for a few seconds and eyed Noodle, taking her presence in for a moment before she did the same with Cyborg. He turned back to look at Noodle and closing his eyes, he sighed. Slowly he lifted his head back up and opened his eyes to look at her.

"Nood's," He began, "This is the part were it gets really messy. Please don't freak out at me or Cyborg."

Noodle could only nod at him. If that was just the beginning, then what could this new revelations reveal to her?

Once 2D understood that she had agreed to his conditions, he began. He told her that Cyborg had been constructed by Murdoc from her DNA and advanced robotics, and she was even implanted with some of Noodle's Memories. He explained to her how Murdoc had created her, not only to replace her as a guitarist, but also to use her as a body guard against the many hit-men that were after his head. He also told her of how recently he had been freeing Cyborg's soul, and how she was steadily becoming more human.

All in all, the talk took about half an hour, but by the end of it, Noodle had experienced so many emotions, ranging from angry to happy to sad, that she was actually tiered, and felt that she needed to go back to bed, regardless of the fact that she had just woken up about two hours ago, maybe even less. It was just a lot to stomach all at once. And she had the feeling that 2D was toning it down a bit so that she wouldn't drown in all the new information. Though she would have normally complained about that and asked for the full and blunt version, at the moment she couldn't help but to be glad that 2D was trying to be gentle about the delivery of this information.

"…And that's what happened." 2D concluded, eyeing carefully for any emotion she might display, but Noodle had her eyes closed and he hands supporting her forehead as she thought.

At the moment Noodle didn't know exactly what to think. She hated Murdoc for replacing her, for torturing 2D, and for giving up on her, but at the same time pitied the man for being so weak and for his miserable existence, while also at the same time she loved him like an uncle due to her all the memories from the band's times in KONG. At the moment she was as likely to give Murdoc a solid flying kick to the face and then cry and run away, than she was likely to hug him and then cry and then forgive him, after he apologised of course.

She was saddened and angered at the thought of Russel giving up on her, but found that she couldn't be angry at the man that she saw as her father. Plus, he _had_ been the one to rescue her and her small belongings from that little emergency rubber raft, so that made up for a good chunk of it, not to mention that traveling with him for about two weeks or more by sea while in his head had proved to be a somewhat bonding experience.

Her feelings were slightly less complicated when her feelings and thoughts landed on Cyborg. She resented Cyborg for being her 'Replacement,' but she found that she couldn't hate her. How could she when Cyborg hadn't had a say in the matter? Or when Cyborg had been a slave for years to Murdoc before finally breaking free? Just the thought that Cyborg had gotten a BULLET to her _head_ protecting Murdoc, and had walked around with said hole for weeks before Murdoc had gotten around to fixing her, sounded like a bad enough punishment to her. If anything, she thought Cyborg at least deserved a chance at being human, at having a family, and at being happy.

_In fact, _Noodle thought,_ now that I think about it, having Cyborg around could interesting. Fun even! 2D said that she was built of my DNA and has some of my memories, so that means she is a lot like me AND that she could understand me very well. Just think of the possibilities! Clothing, make up, discussions, games, anything and everything would have an extra turn now! A new twist! A new set of possibilities! Though, I suppose that that means that we would have to share everything, after all, we are technically the same, but at the same time different… Well, we can get to that later._

And then there was 2D. Now things got tricky here. It was like her emotions were a whirlpool of feelings and thoughts for the blue haired singer, blurring and changing constantly by some kind of unseen current. One of the most prominent emotions was happiness. He was the only one who never wavered in believing she was alive, the only one who had kept searching for her after everyone else had given up. The happiness blurred and intensified into something else, a sort of attraction that was evolving but she couldn't identify. She also felt a sort of miserable feeling at the thought of not being able to help 2D. Though she had been in hellish place, quite literally, she hadn't been tortured like he had, nor had she been stuck with her greatest fear always looking behind a window at a hundred feet under water. There was also a hint of melancholy that then laced into some kind of reconciliation, and lastly, there was also a sort of hoping feeling that loomed in background of all the other feelings, but it she wasn't quite sure why it was there.

It was too much information. It made her head hurt.

_Damn it,_ She thought absentmindedly as she clutched her head between her hands, _Is this what 2D has to deal with so often? How the hell does he manage these migraines?_

"Noodle?" Said 2D, snapping her back to reality, "Are you alright luv?"

Noodle pulled her head out of her hands and blinked a few times before looking around the table. Cyborg was staring at her with a passive face that showed no emotion, while 2D was eyeing her wearily, as if expecting some kind of reaction at any moment.

But she played it down, concealing the turmoil of feelings for the moment. She closed her eye and took a deep breath before she opened them again.

"Hai," Noodle said, and gave 2D a small smile, "I am alright."

He frowned slightly at this. He knew her too well. Something was up with her and she was hiding it, he could tell that much.

"Noodle…" He said with a soft voice that instantly got her attention, "Tell us the truth. How are you? Is something wrong?"

Noodle sighed at him. It was no use trying to keep something from him, he would just see right through her, no matter how perfect the mask or attitude that she put on. It had always been that way, even back when she had first joined the band. It only take him the first month after meeting each other to be able to tell when something was going on with her. She figured she might as well tell him and Cyborg, since 2D trusted her, she could trust her. Plus, if she really wanted to get along with Cyborg she had to let her into her life.

Noodle sighed, with a slight begrudging feeling at the truth of her own thoughts, and rubbed the heel of the palm of her hands against her eyes before looking at the two of them again.

"I am not sure 2D." She answered honestly, "Its just…Its just that it's a lot to take in. I am all mixed up on what I feel and what I think right now. I…I don't know."

2D felt the weight of Noodle's words, as if each word weight a like a dozen bricks. It felt like he was going to break under the weight of his own shame and her confusion. So he finally spoke up what he had been dying to say since she first arrived to the island and he laid eyes on her.

"Noodle…" 2D said with down cast eyes, "I am sorry I couldn't hold you. I am sorry I couldn't save you. I am sorry I couldn't find you. I really am. Its okay if you are angry at me, or even if you hate me. I promise I'll do my best to make it up to you."

Noodle was shocked into silence for a moment. What? 2D was sorry? For what? He hadn't done anything. He _couldn't_ do anything! Why apologise for something he had no control over? Hate him? Be angry at him? She could never do any of that!

And as her head swam with these thoughts, 2D remained with his eyes casted down the floor, looking like a slave awaiting for his punishment.

Noodle looked at 2D with bewilderment, then she turned to look at Cyborg, as if she held the answers to the current problem, only to be stared back by a look of confusion. Finally Noodle's body was able to react, and she quickly stood up, making the chair screech on the cold white tiles of the kitchen floor, and making 2D wince. She quickly rounded the round table and stood beside him, and still 2D wouldn't look up at her. She could tell that had his eyes closed though, and that he was tense, as if awaiting for some barrage of blows to strike his body at any moment,

She lunged at him.

2D

2D had, in his own eyes, screwed up badly. As in 'I want to die right now so it can make other feel better' bad. He had failed Noodle, and that was something he found nearly impossible to forgive himself for. In his mind, the same thoughts had played maybe a hundred thousand times, if not more, about the 'El mañana'. _If I had been stronger I would have been able to hang on to her. If I had followed my instinct then I could have saved her. If I had not relaxed so soon then she wouldn't have been blown away. If I had stayed awake longer I could have followed her._ Those thoughts and dozens more kept crossing his mind since that fateful day. It had been eating him alive.

Then something changed. No longer than a few months ago, he found the caged soul of the closest thing to Noodle; Cyborg. He then made it his goal to free her soul, as a small way of making up for his failure. It hadn't given him neither salvation nor forgiveness, but it had offered him a hope.

Then it all changed again, just over night. Less than twenty four hours ago Noodle had arrived to Plastic Beach with Russel. It was his second chance, and he wasn't going to waste it. If he had to be hated by her, he would take it. If he had to be beaten by her, he would take it. If he had to suffer at her hands, he would take it. Whatever it took to take away an ounce of pain from her shoulders, he would do it, because in his own eyes, he was that cause of all her pain.

So when he had had apologised to her and heard her chair screeching on the cold white tiles of the kitchen floor, he had braced him self for the attack and the pain that would come with it. He deserved it.

And then the attack came.

He felt a body slam onto his side, almost toppling him off his chair from the force of the impact, and almost immediately a pair of hands wrapped around mid section tightly.

_Oh hell, here it comes! _2D thought in half panic, and closed his eyes tightly.

Except that the pain never came.

No, instead of the pain that he expected, warmth spread through his chest. It was disorienting, to say the least. It was like jumping towards a seemingly icy cold lake in the middle of winter, only to find that it was a natural hot springs lake.

_Wha-?_, That was all that 2D managed to think before he began to hear soft sobs from somewhere near his chest. Slowly he opened his eyes, still weary of any possible pain, but his curiosity got the better of him, and he could not help but to look down towards his chest, and what he saw shocked him. Leaning against his chest was Noodle, which was also the source of the sobs. But that wasn't what shocked him the most. What shocked him the most was that warmth that was running down his chest wasn't just warm, it was a wet warm, and that's when he put two and two together and realised that Noodle, _his_ Noodle, the super happy-go-lucky, mega tough super soldier girl, was crying. That made his mind reel back in surprise.

He could only stare for a moment as she shed tears against him. Soon the sobs began to grow in intensity and the tears began to stain his shirt more deeply, snapping 2D back to reality. However, he couldn't think of what to say, so he did the only thing that he could do. He hugged her, softly and gently, while trying to be firm, to let her know that he was there for her. He couldn't do anything else at the moment.

And his fears and regrets were left forgotten in his memory in an instant... at least for the moment.

Cyborg

Cyborg didn't really know what to do. Truth be told, she was quite shocked that Noodle had seemingly tackled 2D, but suddenly began to cry. As far as she knew, tears were a by-product or a reaction to pain and suffering…Or when 2D sang. However, Noodle hadn't been hurt physically, nor had she been verbally abused, nor had 2D sang.

So why was she crying? Why tackle 2D?

She vaguely recalled Murdoc telling her that people cried due to more things than pain. Emotions caused pain. Happiness, sadness, fear, pain… all possible things that could cause tears… but something had to induce that feeling that could trigger tears to a high degree to actually cause people to cry. But 2D had done nothing to induce those feelings… had he?

From what Cyborg could see, Noodle was hanging onto 2D for dear life, though she was in no sort of danger. It was confusing, to say the least, for someone like her who up until recently had not been more human than a computer or a toaster.

Yet, watching Noodle cry her heart out like that, while 2D held her so gently and protectively made her chest ache, almost painfully even.

She blinked twice in surprise to the feeling._ What is feeling? It…aches. Almost painfully. Have I been wounded? Is it a delayed reaction from the kick I received earlier from Noodle? Am I ….Broken?_

As she attempted to figure out the unpleasant kept looking blankly at 2D and Noodle, and the feeling increased in severity gradually, until she suddenly began to feel an itchy sensation in her eyes. It wasn't unlike the time she had heard 2D sing, in fact it was quite similar, but the meaning behind the feeling eluded her mind. And it wasn't until after the first tears left her eyes that she recalled the meaning of that sensation. It meant she was about to cry.

She couldn't help it, though she had no clue why. She tried to make the tears stop, fighting to regain her self control, but all she managed was to keep her self from sobbing, but the tears stubbornly kept running down her face.

The minute that lasted between the time she shed her first tears and the time 2D looked up at her felt to her like a short eternity, but once 2D looked at her, he did something that further puzzled her.

He took one arm off Noodle and lifted it up in her direction. For a few seconds she stared at raised up arm in confusion, before 2D nodded her over with his head. Then, for some reason unknown to her, she stood up from her chair and bolted for 2D, hanging on to him just like Noodle was doing.

Then Cyborg broke down. She really couldn't tell how or why, but as soon as she had reached the Blue-haired singer, she herself began to sob into his arms, crying with a passion equal to Noodle's.

And all 2D did was bring his arm down, and hug her close to him, like he was doing for Noodle.

Murdoc

Murdoc wearily used the elevator to reach the kitchen. He needed his Rum. Everything was better with rum. Or any other alcohol really. As far as he was concerned, alcohol was like a soothing shower that allowed one to forget a great deal of many things, a property of the liquid that he found useful in many cases.

_Finally… Done with that lard ass… now hopefully I can go back to bed… with a little bit of rum before hand, of course. No better sleep than an alcohol induced one._ Murdoc thought with a slight cackle, as the elevator approached the desired floor.

Finally the elevator music stopped, and the doors of the lift slid open. He marched straight for the kitchen, but what he saw stopped him dead in his tracks. As he had began to turn the corner to enter the kitchen he spotted Cyborg and Noodle leaning against 2D. And they were…

"Crying?" Murdoc mumbled to himself quietly in disbelief, as he observed the two little bodies the two purple haired females shake slightly in spasm and he heard the muffled sobs…

_Well… that's new._ Murdoc thought as he looked on for a few more moments before he decided to turn around and leave.

_Now that I think about it, Alcohol might not be the best idea right now. _ He thought to himself absentmindedly as he turned around and left towards the lift, even thought he could feel his thirst for alcohol. He pushed the desire aside for the moment, after all, drinking rum, might lead to him getting drunk, which would possibly lead to memory loss. And he didn't want to forget what he had just seen. It was far too rare.

Somewhere, deep inside him, he was glad. Glad that Noodle wasn't keeping all her feelings inside her completely suppressed, for he knew from personally experience just how bad that could be, and he was also glad that Cyborg was advancing in her evolution towards humanity. And if it was 2D whom could help them keep moving forth and heal them, then so be it. He knew that the girls deserved it. He owed them a least that much.

And with those thoughts in mind, he stepped into the lift and went to his bedroom floor, were he could find a nice soft bed awaiting for his return, and he was not about to make it wait anymore than necessary.

**WOO! Well, that's chapter 10. Sorry if it's a bit short, but if I continued writing, then this chapter would have been three times as long, I think, and it would take quite a while to write properly.**

**Alright people, question time! I am making a little contest, so vote in your review for the following ideas I am going to throw out alright?**

**Question: What event should I make take place in this Fan-Fic next?**

**A) Boogie Man attacks!**

**B) Hunt for the pirates**

**C) The Evangelist arrives!**

**D) Demons (or ghosts. Whatever. you decide!) attack plastic beach **

**E) Reclaiming KONG**

**F) [Insert here your idea. However, the judgement of this idea will be left up to me and a few other people whose opinion I value]**

**SO, what do you think? Any ideas? Suggestions? Let me know okay? And please don't forget to review!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello mon amis! The Dragon is le back**_**! I am SOOOOO sorry for my long delay with this chapter.**_** I got two main excusses: 1. I just started university, and 2. ****I have officially started a new story**** (albeit, a weird and potentially explosive story) called 'Gorillaz Of The Hidden Village' and, believe it or not, it's the first crossover between the World of Gorillaz and the world of Naruto! **

**LE GASP! Insanity you say? Well you know what? I agree. I think I may be totally insane for trying to make this story, but whatever. If any of you is a Naruto or Gorillaz fan and is even mildly intrigued by this idea, pleas check it out, (I suggest finding it under my username). **

**2. I have started university and I got midterms coming up soon.  
One last note! If you have some time on your hands, go read the stories of **Gwen-Fox**, she has some serious righting skills, and her stories are refreshingly different from the usual stories.**

**NOW! Enough of this rant that sounds dangerously like advertisement. Let the story commence!**

Chapter 11: Reason in Madness.

2D looked at his newly un-bandaged arms, slowly flexing his fingers and turning his arms around, relishing the feeling of the air on his skin. It had been already ten days since the shooting incident that had left the two pale scars on his arms, and during those ten days a number things had occurred. First off, due to his injured arms, he had been unable to handle excessive movement of his arms and a as a result he had had more than enough time to put the finishing touches on his iPad songs, which he was planning to put into Album that he now had decided to call "The Fall". For some reason the name sounded fitting for such album.

Secondly, he had noticed a weird sort of tension between Noodle and Cyborg. He really couldn't place his finger on it, but it was as if… as if they were competing at something. They didn't do it with hate in their hearts as far as he could tell, but there was a definite feeling in to the air that felt like competition with an underlining feeling of weariness and respect. He didn't mind it though; as long as they weren't trying to kill each other like last time he supposed it was fine. After all, he couldn't expect them to suddenly get along since, in a way, he supposed they viewed each other as a sort of threat due to the fact that, technically, there was the danger of each of being replaced by the other. Which was also, he supposed, the reason for the competing aura that they both exhibited every time he was near both of them at the same time.

Thirdly, Russel had shrunk to his original size… well, nearly. Apparently whatever Murdoc had done to Russel to shrink him back to his original size had not worked as well as they had expected. Instead of shrinking down to his original size in less than day, the shrinking process had slowed down a lot after Russel hit the four and a half meter (around 15 feet) mark. Since then, Russel had been shrinking about half a foot a day, give or take a couple of inches. Currently he measured around nine feet in height, which although a dramatic improvement from his former 230 feet in height, it was still a rather inconvenient height since he faced difficulty going through most doors. Still, Murdoc had reassured him that he would be back to normal in less than a week, so Russel wasn't to annoyed by it. He was just happy to be able to fit in the kitchen again and be able to make his own food, rather than eating the raw stuff he had had to eat while at sea. Russel was particularly pleased with being able to cook his own bacon again.

Also, Noodle had made it a habit to sit with either 2D or Russel and listen to 'their' latest album, occasionally asking a question about the lyrics or their thoughts on the music's rhythm or beat. As for why she did this, 2D was completely at a loss, indeed he had no clue as to why she would try to dissect the songs so much. In the end he came to the conclusion that she was trying to understand the meaning behind the meaning of the lyrics, but to what end, he could not tell.

And lastly, Noodle and Murdoc still didn't seem to be able to meet eye to eye. Not that 2D could blame her he supposed, after all that had happened between them it was a wonder that Noodle hadn't decided she should go and 'off with his head'. Still, that didn't mean that everything was fine, every time they happened to be in the same room they were abnormally quiet, and they rarely exchanged more than a couple of words. If he hadn't known better he could have sworn that Murdoc was even somewhat _hesitant_ about talking to her. But that couldn't be… It was _Murdoc _for Christ's sake. When was he EVER hesitant?

"So, how does it feel 2D?" Noodle's voice asked, snapping 2D back from his musings.

"It feels great!" 2D said cheerfully.

"There is no stiffness or soreness anywhere?" Cyborg Noodle asked, drawing 2D's attention towards her.

"Nope. See?" He wiggled his fingers at her and flapped his arms around a bit to prove his point, "They are as good as new!"

"Good." Both Noodle's said in synchronization before giving each other a weary glance. As entertaining as being able to say something in synchronization with another person could be, it was starting to annoy them. It wasn't that it happened everyday at every hour, but it happened more frequently than they cared for.

"By the way, what day is it today?" 2D asked rather suddenly, bringing back Cyborg's and Noodle's attention towards him.

"It is currently October 12, 2011," Cyborg said without missing a beat, a slightly smug expression on her face as she glanced from the corner of her eyes at Noodle, who found the look slightly irritating.

"October already?" 2D asked with surprise, "Man, I can't believe it. Time sure moves fast when it wants to."

"Hai." Noodle said sagely, "As they say, time waits for no man."

Then something clicked in 2D's mind. October. His eyes widened fractionally. -_Oh shit. I gotta talk to Murdoc and Russel!-_

"2D? 2D-kun?" Noodle's voice pierced his thoughts. "You okay there?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah, no worries luv. I'm fine." He offered her a toothy smile to emphasize his statement. "Anyways, what do you girls think about lunch?"

-.-.-.

"BLAST!" A gruff voice cursed in the darkness of a large room, followed by the sound of a fine wineglass being smashed against a wall. "Where the hell _is_ HE!"

"W-W-We… don't know sir, Mr. Jackal, sir." A second, deeper, but trembling voice spoke up in the darkness.

"Yeah boss," A third, more high pitched and distinctly female, voice spoke up, "It's like he went in smoke."

A low and animalistic growl could be heard from behind a wide and expensive leather chair, which was facing away from the source of the last two voices, sending shivers down the spines of the underlings of the first voice.

"Shhh-shh-shh, its okay Gigi, its okay." The of Jackal voice cooed to the source of the growl lovingly, before returning to address his underlings with an annoyed, almost poisonous tone of voice, " See what you have done fools? You didn't just failed to find him, you also annoyed Gigi!"

Taking a deep breath Jackal calmed down before his tone of voice upset Gigi. That wouldn't do. He slowly released his breath and returned his gaze towards the open window his expensive Venetian leather chair was facing. It was a good night. Not too many clouds, the breeze was gentle, if a bit hollow, and the half moon in the tropical night sky was sailing across the night like a phantom.

While Jackal studied the night sky, his underlings were struggling to keep from squirming in their spot. Their boss, as profitable as it was to work for him, was scary. No, he was beyond scary. He had his eccentricities, like having that _thing_ as a pet for one, or his seemingly random lapses of silence, which would have been funny on any other person, but in his case, it only added to his aura of danger. He was known world-wide in the underworld and black markets as one of the best at what he did, and one of the most ruthless too. In fact, the two underlings had many times over wondered how such a dream job had turned into what was now bordering a nightmare so quickly, binding them to their boss in such a way that turning back was the equivalent of suicide.

"Stone," Mr. Jackal finally spoke, and the male underling immediately stiffened and focused on his boss, "Nami." The girl quickly and unintentionally copied her partner's actions. "I am disappointed on both of you." The underlings immediately became very tense, sweat begging to perspire from their bodies. Mr. Jackal continued his speech. "But…" At that point Mr. Jackal smiled, he could almost hear their ears perk up when he said that word. Good they still feared him. "You two have been of so much help to me, haven't you? Yes, I think you have. Even if this is the third time you fail to find him and his little crew, I still have use for you both, so here is what is going to happen."

Mr. Jackal leaned back on his chair slightly as his hand reached over the side of his chair and began to pet Gigi, feeling the short warm fur on his head, as if he had not a care in the world as he continued. "As you know, that sneaky green bastard dared to cheat me, and since I found out about this, he has been on the run from us. As it turns out, one of my best hired guns saw him on the port a few months back, opening a bottle of champagne as he boarded a small boat." There was obviously a hint of anger when Jackal described the man drinking champagne, "And since then, he has avoided us like a man running from demons. Recently, he has managed to even release an album while avoiding us. It is a lovely album, truth be told, but it doesn't change the fact that he is on my wanted list."

Mr. Jackal paused for a moment to let his words sink in before continuing. " We have narrowed down the options to his next possible location to three countries. The United States of America, Japan, and England. It is not much information, but we suspect that he will likely stick to the areas near the seas, in case he has need for a quick escape by water like he did before. I want you two to find him."

"But boss-!" Nami tried to speak up when a beefy fist slammed its self on the large wooden desk that was beside the expensive Venetian chair.

"Am I clear?" Jackal hissed out dangerously.

"Ye-yes boss" Nami stuttered.

"Yes Mr. Jackal, s-sir." Stone said with a tad more conviction than Nami.

"Good. Oh, one more thing…." Jackal said with a slightly dismissive tone, "Take Gwen with you. She usually does solo jobs, but in this case, tell her that _I_ said she will have to make an exception and work with you guys."

"Yes sir, Mr. Jackal." Stone said.

"Good. Now get out of here you two. I trust that you two know your way out." Jackal said, a dismissive hand shooing them away from behind his massive chair.

-.-.-.-.

Stone and Nami walked in silence down the dark halls of their boss's mansion, each submerged in their own thoughts as they made their way to their black vehicle. They had their orders. They would have to go get Gwen and find that green imp that had cheated their boss. It was a near impossible mission, even with Gwen, even with their boss's massive underground information network. Their targets were the Gorillaz. That in its self would have been a hard task to accomplish when they were in KONG studios, but ever since they had moved to that damned Plastic Beach, the task bordered-lined with what could be defined as impossible.

Gorillaz.

The word bounced inside the skull of the underlings. This word, this _one_ word, conjured a myriad of other thoughts, words, and images.

Gorillaz.

2D, the vocalist, keyboard player, composer of music. Noodle, the guitarist, the fighter, composer of music. Russel, the drummer, the refined one, composer. Murdoc, the bassist, the leader, composer. Black eyes, green eyes, white eyes, mismatched eyes. Zombies, demons, ghosts, gargoyles, ghouls, phantoms, werewolves, vampires, skeletons, Heaven, Purgatory, Hell. _Music_.

Gorillaz.

They are the only known band to have lived and survived for years in a place like KONG. That in its self was an outstanding feat. They went further. They _opposed_ and _defeated_ many of the creatures of KONG. Murdoc had even dwelled in the underworld and black market long enough to create quite a reputation for himself. They all knew how to use scythes efficiently, if the photos that the boss had acquired from Phase One were anything to go by. 2D and Murdoc together had such a massive following of women that, if either of them was injured or worse, killed (especially 2D), and it was made publicly known _who_ had been the one to carry out such act, blood would surely stain the streets. Even some of the most ruthless drug lords of the underworld shuddered at the thought of Millions of Gorillaz fans rising up against them.

…And they were being charged with capturing them.

_-God…This is madness.-_ Nami groaned as she held her head with her hands and closed her blue eyes for a minute as she continued to walk. Apparently, Stone was of the same opinion because it was only a second after her groan that she heard him whispering to himself "We are so fucked." Nami couldn't agree more.

And the worst of it was that they had no choice. They had already three strikes against the boss in a row. Nami highly doubted that he would stand another. Their necks were on the line.

Taking her hands off her face, Nami took a deep breath and straightened out her back before exhaling slowly. This could turn out badly in so many different levels that it was scary.

"Hey, carrot-top." Stone called out to Nami,

"What?" Nami asked with a bit of a snap, "And stop calling me carrot-top, baldy. Just because I have short orange hair and like to spike it up a bit it doesn't mean that I look like a carrot."

"Whatever carrot-top." Stone merely said dismissively, "Anyways, where are we going to find the witch?"

"You better hope that she doesn't hear you Stone. You know that Gwen doesn't like that nickname much."

"Pft. Like I care. That's a name she has earned, and her victims can attest to that…well, the ones that are left anyways."

Gwen had to admit that Stone had a point. Gwen had earned herself a name in the underworld, Stone, and herself, however, unlike herself and Stone, who prided themselves as being great trackers, Gwen specialized in infiltration and information gathering.

However, the reason why she was called the witch was due to her _methods_ of infiltration and information gathering. A good chunk of the reason for her nickname was due to the fact that she rarely was detected, a feat in its self when some of her targets had rather sophisticated alarm and warning systems, but the bulk of the reason lay with her method of _acquisition_ of information. When the targets refused to cooperate and pushed her buttons… Well, she tended to get rather ruthless. As in, 'I'll-torture-you-slowly-to-death-(literally)-until-you-tell-me-what-I-want-to-know', ruthless.

"Ah, here we are." Stone spoke up when they reached a wide pair of black doors. Pushing the doors open with his wide and tanned hands, the bald man stepped through the doors and into a wide roofed parking lot, followed by Nami.

Stone picked up his pace slightly, as he walked down the parking lot, looking for his black truck. Finally spotting it near between two fancy Mercedes (undoubtedly property of their overly rich boss), Stone jogged towards it and gave it a big hug.

"Oh, my baby!" Stone said as he hugged tightly the Cadillac, "I missed you, yes I did!"

"Oh, grow up Stone." Nami said as she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. It was always like this, hugging and kissing the damn new car. "Its just a car."

"JUST a car?" Stone asked with a disbelieving voice as whirled around to face her, one hand still stroking the black paint of his truck, "Listen here carrot-top, this isn't JUST a car! This is a Cadillac Escalade 2011, customized with bulletproof windows and walls and anti-mine covering for its underneath by the prestigious Texas Armory Corporation, painted with anti-flame paint, and equipped with extra traction tiers, the biggest and meanest engine that could possibly fit without ruining it while also having the finest fuel efficiency out there, AND upgraded with a Nitro accelerator for emergencies by yours truly. Its NOT just a car. It's a work of art, its living poetry, that's what it is!" Stone finished solemnly while still stroking the side of his truck.

Nami just rolled her eyes again, and was about to say something that was less than pleasant to Stone, when a all the sudden a shadow behind Stone blurred for a second into view, causing Nami to straightened out to her full height of five foot eight and by reflex reach for her gun. Noticing her reaction, Stone whirled around to face where Nami was facing, his own two handguns already pointed and ready to be fired.

"Hmmm, not bad." A female voice said as a shadow leapt onto the roof of Stone's truck and apparently sat down, "An FN Herstal FNP-9 handgun for the lady and a Smith & Wesson .500 S&W Magnum revolver and a Glock-17 for the big bald guy. Good choice of weapons on both accounts. Though I prefer my Beretta 92."

Nami and Stone were already aiming their guns at the source of the voice as soon as the first word came out of her mouth, however they refrained from shooting once they saw the owner of the voice. Shoulder length cherry red hair, green eyes, smooth white skin, about five foot seven in height with a hourglass figure, wearing a tight black biker jacket, her classic skinny black jeans and black runners. It was Gwen. No doubt about it.

Stone and Nami sighed as they put away their guns. She really needed to fix that habit of sneaking up on people when she was not on missions. It could get her killed by accident in this line of work.

"What are you doing here Gwen?" Nami asked as she scratched her head, "We were supposed to go get you."

"Yeah, well I didn't have much else to do, so I figured that I might as well meet up with you guys." The red head said as she leaned back slightly.

"Nothing to do?" Stone spoke up rather surprised, "You were supposed to gather information on that guy that is always competing with boss weren't you? I highly doubt that Garganta is an easy target to gather information about."

"I got lucky," Gwen answered simply, before jumping lightly leaping off the roof of the car and facing Stone and name with a toothy grin, "I caught this new guy that ha just gotten promoted. Didn't even last twenty minutes before he broke."

Nami and Stone felt a slight chill go down their spines, knowing more than well enough what Gwen meant when she said that he had 'Broke'. She meant that the guy hadn't lasted through the torture very long, and that, therefore, he was probably a blubbering wreck, and would continue to be for at least a couple of weeks… If he lived that long that is. Garganta didn't take well to people that spilled his secrets.

"Anyways," Gwen continued, "What are you and baldy here waiting for? Lets get going. You can fill me in on the details on the road."

And without further ado, the threesome got in tone's shinny black truck, and set off on their road.

.=.=.=.=.=.=

**WOOOOAH! Finally done this chapter! WOOHOO! By the way, I borrowed the appearance of the OC known as Gwen from **Gwen-Fox**,** **Who has some AWESOME Stories you guys should read (I am baffled by the fact that she hasn't uploaded more of her stories. They are totally awesome!) , Though I did modify her personality to suit the purposes of my story.**

**Anyways, sorry for the uneventful chapter, but I think it is indispensable for the next chapters too come. Anyways, Here is a little description of the Stone, Nami, and Gwen, just so you guys can get a better idea about what they look like.**

**-.=.-.=**

Gwen Fox (Alias: Cat-step Witch)

Height: 5 feet and 7 inches

Eye color: Green

Blood type: AB +

Hair: Cherry red, shoulder length, slightly spiky in the front.

Handgun of Choice: Beretta 92

Age: 27

Gwen-Fox is a pretty girl with lovely porcelain skin nd a few freckles on her face here and there (and due to her charms, she has had in the past a couple of offers for modeling), however she is one of the stealthiest persons on Earth when she wants to be. Born in the USA but raised in a former war-zone, Gwen is more than used to death and torture, however she has managed to remain outstandingly pure through out the years, despite to her exposure to the darker side of the world. She is an effective interrogator, adept at torture we needed, and a good marksman. It should be noted that she is very flexible, as expected from her chosen career, and that she loves bears. Especially big brown teddy bears, as for why that is, the reason is unknown, but likely dates back to her old teddy bear which was given to her by her dad before he was killed in the war-zone.

Stone Smith (Alias: the Bloodhound Stone)

Height: 6 feet and 1 inch

Eye color: Brown

Blood type: O –

Hair: No hair. He is as bald as a billiard ball

Handguns of Choice: a Smith & Wesson .500 S&W Magnum revolver and a Glock-17

Age: 45

Stone is a big burly fellow with tanned skined, the type that you would expect to see guarding an important person as a bodyguard, that loves his car almost as much as if it were his own son or daughter. Stone is a single father, with a 23 year old daughter and a 25 year old son, who are his pride and joy. However, don't let his age deceive you, he is still as strong and quick on his feet as he was when he was 35 years old. He got into the servitude of Jackal purely by accident, when the man once hired him for his body-guarding services, and, unfortunately for Stone, Jackal saw his talent at tracking and took a liking to him. After being offered triple his original pay by Jackal, he became his unwilling underling. It should be noted that Stone is proficient with dual weapons and an excellent car mechanic.

Nami Orange (Alias: the Orange Hound)

Height: 5 feet 8 inches

Eye color: Blue

Blood type: A +

Hair color: Orange

Handgun of Choice: FN Herstal FNP-9

Age: 36

Nami is a mature when she wants to be, but she has learned that a way to remain uninteresting to people who might seek knowledge from her that would land her in trouble if she were to give it out, its not a bad idea to act like she is somewhat childish, which would then make it easier to lie or divert the attention of any one who might want something from her. Nami herself is not a bad looking woman, if anything, she would be considered pretty, with a somewhat slimmer body than Gwen that accentuates her slightly more angular features when compared to the Gwen's slightly more cherubic face. She also manages to carry herself with an air of relaxed confidence that is attractive to many men, however it should be noted that she is not interested in any men that don't have a more interesting or even darker side to them. She is great marksman, cook, and fluent in French, German, and Spanish besides English.

-.-.-

**Well! I hope you guys like their little intro there, and that it helped you understand this three characters a bit more. Now I am going to go to bed. I just spent four hours finishing up this chapter and its pretty late here. Chao.**

**Oh, and before I forget, Happy Early Halloween! **


	12. Chapter 12

**WHATS UP EVERYONE! Freedragon, reporting in! Sorry for the long wait, I just finished my midterms (YAY!) not long ago, so I wasn't able to wright much, but now I'm BACK! Alright, so Just before we start up the story, Two things must be done: **_**First I must inform you I have updated my profile, in it I have included an important notice that WILL affect the outcome of this story, depending on the feedback from YOU guys, so Please check it out.**_** The info will be under the "Heads up!" Section. Now, lets address some comments from my awesome readers (that is to say, you guys! =). )**

**First up, I will answer my awesome Anonymous **Reader**: Oh, don't worry about it. There will be mythical creatures and revelations about all the band members, including 2D. However, I needed to introduce some of the antagonists that were related to Murdoc's shady deals to make future chapters more interesting. I don't blame you for not liking OC's, seeing as they are not part of the official story line after all. But don't worry too much, this will get interesting. As for the Naruto cross over with Gorillaz, you'll see how things turn out. We all know how the band members behave, and we know that Murdoc doesn't take shit from anyone, so it could be interesting don't you think? ;)**

_**A little warning Here: I have had some private requests for adding a it more… SPICE to the accidents between 2D and the girls from a few people, so I have decided to comply after some deliberation. I will warn you people, that **__**things will get somewhat more mature.**__** No lemons, don't worry about that, but there Will be some exposure and partial nudity. If anyone has a problem with this send me a message or say so in the reviews and I'll judge whether I should or should not continue with this approach. **_

**So, with that out of the way, Lets continue with the story!**

Chapter 12: Celebration

Russel

_Beep! Beep! Beep! Bee-! _

Click!

Russel's large finger hit the snooze button on the alarm clock that sat on his nightstand lazily. Slowly the eight an a half foot tall man turned on his side and sat up on his bed, which moaned and gave a few quiet creaking noises as if complaining about the shift of his massive weight. Not that he could blame the bed. If it had been alive and Russel had been in its place, he probably would have groaned too. He stopped at that thought.

_-What the hell am I thinking about?-_

He heaved himself of his bed with a small groan as a few cricks and cracks were heard from the joints of his arms and a few bones in his back realigned themselves into proper position. Grunting in satisfaction, he looked at his calendar hanging.

_-October 13, eh? Noodle's birthday will be soon then.-_ Russel thought vaguely, before his mind aught up with what it had just thought. A hundred alarm clocks could not have created a better wake up call. He literally jumped and reached the ten-foot mark with his head. _– HOLLY CRAP! Noodle is turning 20 soon!-_

Without skipping a beat, he sprinted to the washroom of his bedroom, already making plans in his head about Noodle's Birthday.  
-

2D

2D lay in the bed of his underwater room, with an unusually pleased smile plastered his face as he rested under covers of his bed. Usually, he would have, as a general rule, a frown on his face, or a look that was either neutral or borderline comatose. Perhaps this was the case due to the fact that previously, when he was still in mainland, he had indulged himself in his pain killer pills, or perhaps it was because he would often remember pains or tortures from his life in his dreams, or maybe he just wasn't prone to be expressive in his sleep. In any case, most people that knew him would agree that he was quite unexpressive during the time he slept.

This had become even more marked after he was forced to go to Plastic Beach, the reason was likely the fact that he wasn't comfortable in a cold, dark room under several dozens of meters underwater, or maybe it was the fact that he had fallen into Murdoc's clutches once more that hunted him even in his sleep. Most likely, it was a combination of both, with the added fact that his worst nightmare had been somehow bribed by Murdoc to be circling around his room and watch his movements.

So why, you may ask, would he smile now?

The answer is fairly simple. He was warm. It was that little and seemingly insignificant fact that caused him to smile. Usually, that wouldn't be enough. A little warmth didn't make his fear of whales any less real, nor the fact that a huge whale was circling his bedroom constantly. It also wouldn't change the fact that he was still more than fifty meters under water, protected only by walls of compact metal, debris, and trash that were held together by a mix of oil, glue, silicone, and only God knows what else. Even a child could tell you that the sturdiness of the structure of such a place was uncertain at best and unpredictable at worst.

And yet, this warmth that he felt was all it took for him to smile a relaxed and pleased smile. The warmth that he felt upon either side of him was all he needed to smile at the moment.

Ever so slowly he began to come into consciousness, blissfully unaware of his surroundings, for a change. It was a nice change. For once in a very long time his senses where not tense. For once, he didn't have to guard himself even during his sleep. Like the sweet and fresh breeze that came after a heavy downpour of rain, it refreshed him. It was not just warm; it was a comforting feeling as well. Something he had been severely lacking for… how long now? Four years? More? Ever since he had been brought to Plastic Beach? No, even longer… ever since Noodle disappeared five years ago. Been forcibly brought to Plastic Beach had only made it worse.

In any case, it was something he welcomed with open arms, or would have, had he been conscious enough to do it.

Which would happen soon, seeing as the light of day was filtering itself through the ocean water, all the way down to the one small window in 2D's room, and sneaking its way through the small gap between the drawn curtains to land on his face.

"Mmhmmm…." 2D half mumbled half sighed as the light brought him gently out of his slumber. Crinkling his nose slightly at the disturbance of his sleep, he turned his head to his left in an instinctual attempt to block some of the light reaching his face, only for his nose and lips to be buried in a silky web of what felt like strands of fine thread.

-_Smells nice….-_ He idly thought somewhere in the recesses of his still slumbering mind, but the thread tickled his nose and pulled him slightly more towards consciousness. Squeezing his eyes slightly tighter, and wrinkling his nose, made a move to try to scratch the side of his nose with his right hand.

Except he couldn't.

His right arm was being pinned down by something. Something soft and warm. Somewhere in his slowly waking and yet slumbering mind, he found it slightly odd that he should not be able to move his hand. And that, yet again, yanked him a little closer to wakefulness. He tried to move his left arm.

Once more he felt the odd sensation of his arm being pinned down by some thing soft and warm. It was a nice feeling really. Whatever was holding him down was warm and soft, somehow comforting even. He was very faintly aware that he let scape a small pleased sigh from his lips, which slightly ruffled the silky threads that pressed themselves gently against his nose and lips, tickling him a bit more. But in the depths of his now awaking and groggy mind, he couldn't help wondering why his arms were pinned.

This, combined with the tickling at his nose and lip, and the light of the new day (which refused to be ignored as it continued to assault his eyelids) brought him into semi-consciousness, just enough so that he could form simple coherent thoughts and some degree of rational thought process.

-_Mmmhmm...itchy…-_

Once again 2D attempted to scratch the side of his nose with his right hand, only to once again feel the warm and soft object pinning down his arm.

-_Hmm?... wazzat…?-_

Idly curious, but refusing to open his eyes, 2D turned his semi-focused mind's attention towards the object pinning down his right arm. He slowly began to notice that the object, whatever it was, was not only keeping his arm warm, but rather it was keeping his whole right side warm. There was some part of the object wrapped around his arm, which he found distinctly pleasing, in particular the part of his upper arm where the object began to wrap itself around his arm, where the object seemed to envelop him more fully in its embrace. The main body of the object seemed to be laying partially on top of him, in particular the lower part of it, which seemed to wrap its self around his right leg.

For a couple of seconds, 2D's mind tried to work out what the object was, before he gave up and decided t hat it just would be easier to lift his other arm and scratch his itchy nose, rather than trying to figure out what the object was.

Yet again the he felt a similar object pinning his left arm down. Frowning slightly, 2D tried to figure out what the object was again. This other object was also wrapped around his arm, but it seemed to be pressed against his whole left side, making contact with the side of his ribs all the way down to just above his left knee. This time, however, he noticed a couple of lumps pressed against his arm.

Frowning again, 2D finally gave up and decided that he might as well take a look at what was barring his arms from dong their duty and scratching his itchy nose. It was a very important task after all, and his itchy nose would not be so easily ignored.

Cracking one eye open just a bit, he tried to look around him, only seeing blurry colors and bright light until his eyes adjusted to the light. It only to a couple of seconds, but what he saw distinctly puzzled him. 

Purple. Lots and lots of purple, with a few strands of blue here and there.

That was all that was in his field of view. A second later he realized the purple was actually the strands of string that had been tickling his nose, and that the blue was just bits and little bunches of his own hair getting in the way of his field of vision. Satisfied with his inspection for the moment, he began to close his eyes, when a thought suddenly hit him

-_Wait a minute! I don't HAVE a ball of silky purple string!-  
_

That waked him up faster and more completely than even Murdoc could have ever done, even if he had had a blow-horn.

Instantly 2D's eyes snapped open, and took in everything in front of him again. That wasn't string, that was hair! But…the only people that had natural purple hair were Cyborg and Noodle! And judging by the bright purple tinge, it was most likely staring at the back of Cyborg's head. Panic was begging to rise in him, and he quickly turned his head towards his chest, were the other source of warmth was located.

Purple. Again he was met with a mass of silky purple hair, only that, this time, it had a slightly more blue-ish tinge to it. If that hadn't given it away that he was staring at Noodle, the fact that her face was tilted towards his, revealing a somewhat bruised eye and a slightly open mouth made sure he knew he was looking at Noodle.

At that point his brain went into over drive.

Little flashes of memories kept flying through his head about yesterday as he searched his mind in panic for a reason for his situation. In particular, the a little fragment of memory in which he recalled Noodle excusing herself and Cyborg from dinner, saying that the two of them needed to talk, telling 2D not to worry before departing to talk with cyborg. However, the memory only lasted a brief moment before it was gone in his mind and replaced with more frantic thoughts.

_-Whats going on here? Why are the sleeping with me? Why are they clinging on to me? What happened last night? How am I going to get out of here without being killed by them? How am I going to get out of this one without being killed by Murdoc and Russel! What am I going to do, what am I going to do, What Am I Going To DO!-_

After a brief moment of internal hysteria at the thought of Russel and Murdoc walking in at the moment and seeing him sleeping not only with Cyborg, but also with Noodle, and what they would do to him, 2D managed to calm down and slow his breathing as to not wake up the two young women that lay by him and on him. Taking a slow and deep breath, 2D began to reassess the situation.

-_Calm down, Calm down. Alright, I need to get out of here with out them noticing, how do I do that? Hmmm….. What would Russel say to do in a time like this….?-_

2D slowly conjured up an image of Russel, sitting in a fancy ebony table and wearing a top hat and a monocle while drinking tea out of an expensive china teacup, in his mind.

-"_Well, one is faced with a problem that is unconventional and complicated it, one must dissect the situation accurately, gathering as much information as possible before passing judgment on the matter and then addressing it accordingly." The Russel in 2D's mind said as if it was the most natural thing in the world as he sipped his tea._

_-"Er…. Wha? I didn't get all that… Say it In English please?" 2D asked to his conjured up Image of Russel, unaware of how awkward it would seem to anyone else that he couldn't understand his own mental illusion.-_

_- The imaginary Russel sighed, put his tea down, and took out a handkerchief and proceeded to polish his monocle as he began to re-explain what he had just said._

" _Look, its like this D. When you have weird and complicated problems, all you gotta do is try to examine the situation, and by that I mean that you have to pick it apart if so that you can understand it, and get all the facts and information you can by doing this. Then you just have to use what you learned to get out of the problem. Not that difficult, right D?"-_

_-"Er… I guess." 2D said somewhat uncertainly. He had understood what the illusionary Russel had said this time, but it sounded like it wasn't going to be easy.-_

_-"Good." The mental Russel nodded sagely before putting his monocle back on his eye. "So, start examining the situation, see how they are pinning you down and all that, then move a bit here and there, see how they react, and then get out using the information that you gathered.-_

And with that, 2D dispelled his mental image of Russel and began to analyze the situation.

He closed is eyes and began to feel the locations of contact that Cyborg had against his body and what parts of her body were in contact with his body.

_-Right, so, her back is against the side of my ribs… and then her feet are partially touching my thigh, just above my knee… alright. That's not so bad. And lets see… Oh, she has both of her arms wrapped around my arm and she is pressing it into her chest and…!_

At that point 2D froze. He hadn't really realized it before, but Both, Cyborg and Noddle, were pressing their breasts against his arms. The thought almost made him pass out, but weather from happiness or from fear of what they would do if they woke up and realized this, he did not know.

_-Man, you can't tell with their clothes on, but these two actually don't have a bad rack, aaaAAAND WHAT THE BLAZEZ AM I THINKING!- _2D screamed in his head as he began to blush and feel the temperature of his body increase a bit. Being distracted at the moment was not the thing to do at the moment…Not to mention that his "Little Buddy" would soon not be so little if that particular train of thought continued its path, and _that_ was the last thing he needed right now.

2D forced himself to focus once more continue to his inspection.

_-Alright, so, it seems tat Cyborg is curled up with her back against my side. Okay…that's not so bad, if I could only free my arm then I am pretty much safe from her. Now Noodle… She seems to be lying on her side, facing me and her head is resting on my chest…Besides that, I think her leg is wrapped around mine…. Okay, so Noodle is the one that is going to be hard to not wake up, so I should start with Cyborg then.-_

Slowly he tried to wiggle his arm free of Cyborg, pushing and pulling it gently, and ignoring the occasional small moans from Cyborg, and trying to convince himself that those moans were definitely _NOT_ from pleasure from his arm rubbing against her as he tried to free his arm. Nope, definitely not from pleasure, Mmm-mm, the fact that her body temperature was also rising slowly was also pure coincidence too.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, but in reality was about five minutes, he freed his arm from Cyborg's grasp. With a quiet sigh of relief, 2D thanked whatever angel was watching over him at the moment for helping him get one arm free before he proceeded to start working on Noodle.

The process was pretty much the same, except that he used his free hand slightly pull away her arms from his, since every time that he seemed to pull away without holding her arms a bit a part, she squeezed on his arm a bit until he stopped moving.

After another five awkward minutes of ignoring soft moans and certain nice…_pressures_ at certain locations in Noodle's body due to her squeezing his arm, he finally freed his other arm and turned her on her side so that she was facing away from him.

At that moment, 2D felt like could dance right there and then.

_-Damn I'm good! I could do this all day now I think, any day, without problems. Hah! Who needs help when I con do it by myself.-_ 2D boasted inside his own head proudly.

And as if the universe had heard his thoughts and taken offence to them or taken those words as a challenge, as soon as 2D began to pull himself into a sitting position, by dragging his whole body towards the headrest of the bed, Noodle and Cyborg turned on their sides and wrapped their arms around his waist and hugged him closely.

Now, since 2D slept with a pair of pajama pants that were made of a very fine and light fabric, he could feel very well the generous…_assets_ that both young women seemed to conceal so well under their regular clothing, but were a lot more noticeable under the thin shirts that they were currently wearing. At this event, his "Little D" turned into "BIG D" in an blink of an eye.

At that point 2D felt like he could cry. And he might have too, had his alarm clock not decided to ring, seemingly a hundred times louder than usual, in the ears of a horrified 2D.

2D, in his panic dove under the blankets, not caring anymore if he would wake them up or not, since the alarm clock had guaranteed that they would wake up already. In an instant, 2D was under the covers of his bed from head to toe.

Cyborg and Noodle for their part were jolted into full alert due to the combined effect of an alarm clock and a rushing 2D.

"Hmm? Wha waz zat!" Noodle and Cyborg asked as they jolted awake and sat up quickly on the bed, both already in full alert.

Surprised by each others voices, they turned to stare at each other for a second, until a little patch of blue hair that protruded from underneath the blankets caught their attention on the opposite end of the mattress. It quickly became apparent that the strands of hair were connected to the big bulge under the covers, the cause of which was undoubtedly 2D.

Breaking eye contact, Noodle proceeded to crawl a bit closer to the location of the mattress which 2D was using under the blankets.

"Good morning 2D." Noodle said cheerily, apparently unperturbed by the fact that she and Cyborg had slept in the same room as 2D, stopping at the base of the bulge under the blankets.

"Oh! Er, hi, Good morning Noodle!" 2D said somewhat nervously as his head popped out at the opposite end of the mattress. "And good morning Cyborg. Did, uh, did you guys sleep well?"

"Morning 2D. Yeah I slept well, thanks for asking." Cyborg answered cheerily, which 2D noticed with a bit of surprise. It hadn't been long ago when she still had trouble with showing emotions, but for some reason she was sounded _distinctly_ happy today. 2D was glad that she was progressing so quickly. Still, something really good must have happened yesterday. He made a mental note to ask about it later… when he got out of this mess and he could walk upright without a large tent pitched in his pants.

"Same here 2D-kun." Noodle said, "Ready for breakfast?"

"Well, I, uh, um… yes! I um, I'll be there in a minute, you guys go ahead." 2D asked, a slight blush showing in his cheeks.

Puzzled, Noodle and Cyborg turned to look at each other, then they looked at 2D, and then back at each other again. They stared at each other for a moment, as if they were either recalling something or deciding something, while 2D started to get a very uneasy feeling, but he couldn't help but notice that Cyborg and Noodle weren't dressed very…modestly, considering that they had slept with him… and he didn't recall laying down with them in the first place! 2D slid slightly deeper into the depths of his blankets so that the blankets covered his mouth and his face was only visible from the nose up in an attempt to cover a faint blush that was beginning to develop in his cheeks.

Cyborg was wearing a somewhat loose sleeveless shirt that showed her mid drift perfectly and a pair of shorts that couldn't have been more 4 or five inches long in total, they barely covered more than an inch or two of her legs bellow her butt. Noodle was wearing a sort of long white and red shirt that reached to mid thigh, and some short-shorts, and… apparently that was it for both of them, if what he had felt earlier –_By accident!- _he reminded himself, was anything to judge by. However that shirt Noodle was wearing was familiar to him…. Were had he seen it before?

_-Oh, Hey! That's my old T-virus shirt! Wait… my old T-virus shirt? …how did…?-_

2D's train of thought was abruptly brought to a stand still when both of the girls nodded at each other and stretched their arms up above their heads and then towards their backs, pushing up and out their chests as they stretched, allowing him to get to seem a bit more skin around their torso. But that wasn't what really surprised him, what surprised him was when Cyborg and Noodle dropped down on all fours, and crawled a bit closer to him. It was then that 2D really began to hear an alarm ringing at the back his head.

"Hey 2D?" Noodle asked innocently, "You don't want to go up with us?"

"I, er, no! I mean, Yes! I mean, I do want to go up, but I, er…" 2D stuttered while his mind was racing to come up with an excuse. He needed more time! He needed to stall them, distract them, send them away, _ANYTHING!_

"Well, then…" Cyborg said somewhat slowly, keeping 2D's attention on her while Noodle and Cyborg sneaked their hands to the edge of the blankets that 2D was hiding underneath of. And instant later, the two young women shot their hands forwards, covering the last centimeter of distance between the blankets and their hands in the blink of an eye, grabbing hold of the blankets, and unknowingly also grabbing hold of the sleeves of the legs of 2D's pajama pants, and yanked them away with all their strength as they both shouted playfully, "Come with us!"

The blankets were mercilessly ripped out of 2D's grasp before he could react. And all he could do was freeze in horror as he felt his blood turn cold and his heart rate skyrocket. He literally could feel the blood drain from his face as the two girls looked at each other with a smile, before they turned to look at him….

And look at him they did, their jaws nearly hitting the floor when they saw that they had pulled his pants of in the process and they were now staring at his very large and proudly erect member.

In a matter of seconds, the faces of both Girls turned a shade of scarlet so deep, that ANY tomato or jalapeno would have been jealous, and a moment later they passed out, a small trickle of blood running down from their noses and down the small smiles that the girls sported as they blacked out.

It took 2D a minute to be able to regain his ability to think and the motor movement of his body from his shocked state, and when he did, he could only say, and think, one thing:

"Oh, Bloody Hell…"

Murdoc

Murdoc was sprawled haphazardly over his king sized bed amidst his large collection of hats, snoring his life away until the sun –or the rum- demanded him to awaken. Preferably the later. Unfortunately for him, this morning he was awoken by the former.

Sluggishly Murdoc opened up a mismatched eye to stare at the window blankly for a moment. God, he hated mornings. Especially Mondays. Wait… was today a Monday? No… That was three days ago… When that damnable pelican tried to eat his fedora hat. Then what day is it today? 

_-Wait… what's Monday plus three?... Er…ah… Oh! Monday plus three, then its Thrursday! … Well, Thursdays are almost as bad as Mondays.-_

Thought, if he had been being honest with himself, he hated pretty much every day other than Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And he only liked Fridays because the name reminded him of the word "French", which reminded him of, as he liked to put it, "Smokin' hot French birds"….and French kissing. Oh, did he ever love the French kisses the women from France could give! The things they could do with their tongues! Murdoc had to giggle perversely at that last thought. Women. He hadn't had one in at least two weeks, he was really starting to itch for one.

And for some unfathomable reason, Murdoc decided that a trip to Europe, preferably France, was in order.

_- Yes… that would do nicely.-_ Murdoc thought to himself with a plotting smile as he stretched his back on the mattress, causing several loud cracks and pops to scape his stiff back, before he managed to swing his feet over the side of his bed and push himself off his bed with a grunt.

Once standing, naturally he was only wearing his underwear and socks, he grabbed the nearest bottle of alcohol he could find, in this case a bottle of some strong but delicious beer known as "White Light", and took a big gulp of its contents before he gave a satisfied smack of his lips and sighed in relief.

_-Nothing tastes better than alcohol in the morning.-_ He thought with satisfaction to himself. –_Now, what shall we do today?- _Murdoc wondered idly as he began to walk towards his washroom.

_-Well, lets se… What haven't we done for a while now… Fishing? Nah. Writing lyrics? Don't feel like it… Publicity? Well, there's an idea… but how?... Ah-Ha!-_ Murdoc thought triumphantly, -_A NEW pirate radio! And youtube video! Yes, that will work out nicely… We will make it official! The world should be crawling with rumors of our return, and the return of Noodle and Russel has only added more timber to the fire! The whole world wants to know more! Now its time to let them know we are back! The WORLD will know!-_

"THE WHOLE WORLD MUST KNOW!" Murdoc shouted out and cackled manically as he slammed the door to his washroom shut, blissfully unaware that Jackal and his people were still hell-bent on tracking him down.

Cyborg and Noodle

Cyborg an Noodle laid passed out in 2D's room after seeing his nakedness, and said man had finally decided to dash to the washroom and take a long cold shower after he had made sure that they were Okay. Noodle and Cyborg, for their part, were dreaming, or more accurately, remembering the conversation they had the day before with each other, during their slumber.

_Flashback_

Cyborg sat on the table eating a pasta dinner, courtesy of Russel, with 2D, Noodle (who had pushed her cat mask just high enough to make her mouth visible), and Russel; Murdoc had already eaten and left with a couple of bottles alcohol to his room, explicitly telling everyone in the dinning room to not bother him unless they were under heavy fire of pirates or something along those lines, unless they wanted a severely pissed Murdoc chasing after them with an axe.

Truth be told, she was still getting used to the idea of eating solid food for energy, even thought she had been doing it for about a two weeks before Noodle and Russel arrived to Plastic Beach. She could recall the moment perfectly.

Murdoc still had not the full inspection on her to officially declare that she was becoming more human physically and mentally, but he had his suspicions about Cyborg becoming more human physically and, in fact, he had been pretty sure he was right even before the inspection. As a way to prove his theory further, Murdoc had charged 2D with teaching Cyborg how to eat. Despite the fact that Cyborg knew about the process known as eating, she had no idea how to actually _swallow_ or _chew_ anything properly. That's were 2D came in.

He had to teach Cyborg how to chew, how to swallow, and basic table manners. It had been quite awkward at first, particularly for 2D since he had to actually demonstrate how to move the tongue to move and roll the food around in the mouth so one could properly chew it. He even had to go as far as to feed Cyborg for the first week and a half since she wouldn't eat otherwise, preferring to charge herself up from the plugs in her 'room' rather than put what she described as "foreign objects" in her mouth. However, she eventually learned to enjoy eating, and as she had mentioned to 2D before, she didn't like chewing as much as tasting and swallowing the food. But she learned the need for chewing after nearly choking twice trying to swallow an entire half of a potato and large chunk of meat on separate occasions, each of which was easily an inch-and-a -half across.

Oddly enough, Cyborg had discovered that she particularly enjoyed sweet foods and bitter foods and tasting new things, something she would later learn that she shared in common with Noodle.

"Oh sweet mercy! Russel yew have no idea how much I missed you and your cooking!" 2D said happily after he swallowed the first mouthful of pasta, simultaneously Pulling Cyborg back from her musing and making Russel laugh good-naturedly.

"No problem D, nice to know I was missed." Russel said with a smile once he stopped laughing, "Its good to be back, ya know? And to be able too cook the food of my family. That's an other thing I really missed doing too."

Cyborg felt a twinge of what she was beginning to identify as jealousy at the words spoken by 2D. After all, she had been the one to make almost all the cooking before Russel arrived and she just couldn't help to feel a little disheartened at the fact that Russel had taken on most of that roll now that he was at Plastic Beach and that Russel had outdone her in cooking.

_-But DAMN, 2D is right, this is some seriously good pasta.-_ Cyborg thought to herself as she happily swallowed yet an other mouthful of pasta. In the end, she couldn't stay jealous at Russel for more than a second or two, since even she had to admit that his food was delicious, and it more than made up for the fact that he had taken the great majority of the roll of the band's Chef from her. Besides, it would give her more free time, which translated in more time with 2D in her mind. She made a mental note to thank Russel for becoming the new chef later.

Quickly she finished devouring what was left of her food, while keeping in mind all the manners that 2D had taught her, before she gave a soft satisfied sigh. Oh, Russel would have definitely become a five-star chef if he hadn't joined Gorillaz.

"Thanks for dinner Russel-san, it was great!" Noodle said with a satisfied smile. "Now if you would excuse me and Cyborg, we need to go talk."

Cyborg immediately sat up a bit straighter, surprised by the announcement of Noodle, but acting as collected as she could, she raised an eyebrow slightly at Noodle, who just gave her a look that said, 'Seriously, we need to talk.'

2D and Russel for their part looked quite surprised, both of their eyebrows shooting up before they turned to look at each other with questioning glances before they focused back on Noodle.

"Oh you two, nothing bad is going to happen." Noodle said dismissively, but a tad disgruntled at the looks of suspicion that she got from 2D and Russel. She was particularly irritated at the one that she got from Russel actually, since he looked at her with a warning in his eyes that clearly said, "Don't do anything stupid."

"Anyways, lets go." Noodle said as she turned to leave the room, making her way towards the lift.

2D's eyes shifted to focus on Cyborg, who merely stood up without missing a beat and followed Noodle out the door, leaving behind two somewhat confused band members staring at the door.

Once the two girls were on the lift and the doors of the lift had closed behind them, Cyborg turned towards Noodle with her arms folded across her chest.

"Alright, what's going on here Noodle?" Cyborg asked without beating around the bush. She wanted to know what his was about, and she wanted to know as soon as possible.

Noodle looked at her with a measuring eye, as if judging whether or not to tell her right away. In the end, Noodle sighed and turned to look at cyborg and crossing her arms just like she had done. They might as well have been mirror images of each other, except for their clothes.

"Look, Cyborg, we just need to talk about 2D. Lets wait until we reach the beach were we can sit down and talk."

Cyborg seemed to tense up slightly at the mention of 2D's name, and for a second she had wondered if this was going to turn into an other deadly fight like the first one, but the way Noodle said it, along with the promise they had done with 2D about not trying to kill each other, made her relax somewhat.

Finally they reached the ground floor and exited the lift. Once they were outside of the Plastic Beach Mansion, they walked around for a couple of minutes before sitting cross-legged on a mall hill of sand, facing each other in silence for about a minute.

Taking a deep breath, Noodle finally decided to begin.

"Alright, well, like I said, I called you out here to talk about 2D." She said as diplomatically as she could. She needed to try to make this work.

"Right. What about him?" Cyborg asked with curiosity.

"You like him." Noodle said bluntly, more of statement than the question it was supposed to be.

"Yes. So do you." Cyborg replied with equal bluntness.

"Yes. And that's why we have a problem." Noodle stated.

"True. What do you want to do about it?" Cyborg asked. _–But if she that I'm going to back off with out a fight, then she is in for a big surprise.- _Cyborg thought resolutely as she looked at Noodle evenly.

"That's what we are going to have to figure out." Noodle said, looking at Cyborg evenly, and making it clear that she also wasn't going to back off so easily.

"Fair enough. Any ideas that don't involve us killing each other and loosing 2D's trust and respect?"

"Not many. Maybe we should talk to each other for a little bit, you know, get to know each other. Maybe doing so will help us thing of something, while at the same time it could help us understand each other. After all, we need to understand and know each other well if we are going to be in the same band, regardless of who gets 2D."

Cyborg thought this over for a bit. True, a band functioned better if the band members developed bonds with each other, and knowing each other helped develop those bonds. Additionally, it might help them reach a solution for their dilemma and it would help her to learn to socialize with other people. Who knows, they might even end up liking each other by the end of this.

"Alright then. Lets do that."

"Great! So…. Anything you'd like to now Cyborg?"

"Hm…" Cyborg paused for a minute, bringing one hand to rest on her chin as she pondered what to ask Noodle, "Alright… Why do you like 2D?"

Noodle could only blink and stare at Cyborg for a moment. Out of all the questions Cyborg could have asked, that was not one she had even considered.

"Well?" Cyborg asked after Noodle hadn't answered for whole minute.

"Well… erm…," Noodle said, stalling for a few precious seconds of time to think. She couldn't back out now, especially since it was her own idea. She'd just have to tell her. "Well, its kind of complicated how it got there. The answer is not a short one, it has to do a lot with the history of Gorillaz that hasn't been officially announced so…"

"That's fine." Cyborg said, now unfolding her arms leaning forwards to rest her chin on her hand and resting her elbow on her leg.

_-Damn it-_ Noodle inwardly cursed. Taking a deep breath she began her story.

"Well, you see, I am not exactly sure how or when it started, but I suppose you could say that I had a connection with him from the very start. You'll notice small differences in my version of the stories compared to the ones in "Rise of the Ogre" because Murdoc wasn't completely honest through out the entire book, but anyways. You see, I arrived to KONG Studios in a FedEx crate when I was just ten, and all I had with me besides my clothes were a blue Les Paul electric guitar and a smallish battery powered amplifier. When I first arrived to KONG, I could hear yelling from the inside of the house, which in truth frightened me a bit. I didn't understand any of it at the time because I didn't know any English, I only could talk and understand Japanese. Now I know it was Murdoc yelling at 2D to get the door, which he did, announcing that a large crate had just arrived. 2D was the person who opened the crate, and he was the first person I saw in, what I knew at the time, my whole life. So I…" And Noodle continued with her story.

Noodle told Cyborg everything, holding nothing back from her. Well, not every single day of their lives, but he did tell her the highlights, and the general of how they acted. She told her the whole of her first day at KONG, her first Halloween and Christmas, Her firs Birthday, playing video games with 2D, surviving Kong, 2D taking care of her, 2D helping her get over her fears (of the dark, zombies, and storms), the event that became known between 2D and her as the "Great pillow Fight of 2000", the break up and how she regained her other identity, the return of the band, the cleansing of KONG, 2D protecting her from her nightmares, 2D singing with her "Feel Good Inc.", 2D pulling her out of trouble with "aggressive" fans and producers, how he advised her away from "El Mañana" but she went through with it, how she fell into the dimension that bordered between Hell and Earth and three other worlds and how the memory of his voice kept her sane. All this and more Noodle told Cyborg.

"…And that's the story. I don't know exactly when I fell for him, nor when did it start. All I know is that I realized it only some time around the making of the Video of "Dirty Harry." At first I thought it was dumb crush at first. I was what? Fifteen? Sixteen? What did I know? So I kept it to myself. I only realized how much he meant to me after I had fallen for him _completely_ after I was torn from him and was thrown into that other dimension. Funny thing about my time in _that _other place, Some times I could swear that I could hear him, whispering in my ear warnings about what laid ahead, or the hidden dangers of the creatures I met, or singing his our old songs, even little pieces and segments of the new songs.

I quickly learned to regret not listening to that little voice that whispered in my ear sometimes. You could say that he saved me several times from an awful death. Anyways, I'm getting side tracked. My point is, I felt safe with him, and I still do. I know he cares for me. I know he understands me better than anyone else, and he is the sweetest and most caring person on the world. And I know he would go to the ends of the world and to the very gates of hades to save whoever is precious to him. And as a bonus, he looks great! _THAT_ is why I like him.

But I did learn something… its true what they say; You only realize what you have after its gone. That why I am _not _giving him up easily!" Noodle concluded fiercely, before her eyes went wide and clamped her mouth shut. She didn't have to say that last bit. It almost sounded like challenge! Damn, hopefully Cyborg wouldn't really mind to much attention to the very last bit.

Cyborg stayed in silence for a moment, thinking things over in her mind. Noodle certainly seemed justified in liking 2D. The guy practically protected and guided her since she was ten, not to mention that he understood her from the inside out, and to add more reasons, he was young, he was handsome, he had a great singing voice, he was sweet, he was caring, even if he wasn't the greatest light bulb in the Christmas tree, he was willing to stick it out for the people he cared about. No wonder she was head-over-heels for the guy.

"And you?" Noodle asked.

"Hm? Pardon?" Cyborg asked.

"Why do _you _like 2D?"

"Well…" Now it was Cyborgs turn to be uncomfortable, but since Noodle had given her story, now it was her turn, "As 2D told you before, I have been becoming more human for a few months now. That is exactly why I like 2D."

"Pardon?" Noodle asked puzzled. There was _no_ way that cyborg would fight so hard for 2D if it was just because she was turning human. There had to be more to it.

"Well..." Cyborg began, "2D was the one who triggered my human transformation. Not only that, he was practically the one that "raised" me too."

"What do you mean he "Raised you? I thought Murdoc had programed you before hand." Noodle asked with genuine curiosity.

"He did, but not on every aspect of being human. For example, I understood the need and action for breathing, or for going to the washroom to relieve yourself, or for walking. But, for example, I didn't know how to eat, I didn't know how to talk properly, I didn't know how to interpret people, I didn't know anything about feelings or facial expressions, I didn't even know much about taking a shower. Also…-"

"Wait what?" Noodle asked, startled at the last thing she had said.

"What about what?" Asked a confused Cyborg.

"What do you mean you _didn't_ know how to shower? That means you learned right? That means that he taught you right?"

"Oh, that, yeah." Cyborg said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. It made Noodle want to kill her, but she refrained from doing so. "I was a half machine before, so I never had to take a shower because it could cause me to short circuit. But since I turned human, I had to learn all the normal grooming rules for humans. I had to learn how to shower just like any newborn would have had to. 2D had to go as far as to get some swimming trunks for himself and get Murdoc to get me a swim suit and show me how scrub myself in the ocean."

Noodle visibly relaxed when she heard this, a fact that went unnoticed by Cyborg. Heaving a small sigh of relief, she said, "Sorry for interrupting Cyborg. You were saying?"

"Its fine. Anyways, as I was saying, he didn't just 'raise' me, he also protected, helped, and guided me. For example, he gave me confidence in the fact I have a soul, he was the first person that trusted and believed in me because of _me_ and not because of some program that had been installed in my head, and he also taught me emotions, and he was the one who taught me about freedom and the beauty of life. He also saved me from being a mindless and sadistic robot that did whatever it was told. Aside from that, I like him for the _exact _same reasons as you; I find him extremely attractive, I think he has the greatest voice in the universe, I know that he is kind and caring to a fault, I feel safe with him which is something that only _he _has been able to do so far, I also know he cares for me, and I know he will listen when I need to talk, and I owe him my life just as you, but for different reasons. That's why _I _love him." Cyborg finished, with just as ferocity as Noodle had.

There was a pause for a minute or two as the two of them pondered what they had said themselves and what the other had said. Some thing that became quickly apparent was the resemblance of their circumstances. Both had been nurtured in one way or an other by the Blue-haired singer, both had in some way been saved by him in some way, both fell in love with him because of the same qualities, and both would fight with their all for him.

The realization crashed against them like a ton of bricks. It was like they were the same person, living two different lives, and yet being saved at the same time by the same person. It was thought that was somewhat disturbing and yet very romantic in an unusual sort of way.

"…Alright, then… that's a bit creepy." Cyborg finally stated after a few minutes.

"What is?" Noodle asked.

"The fact that even our lives have so much in common, despite the fact that the circumstances are so much different, to the point that we would fall for the same guy, for the exact same reasons."

"Yeah, no kidding."

"So…what are we going to do?"

Noodle ran a hand through her hair and let out a heavy sigh before she completely took off her mask and looked at Cyborg.

"Well…. There are three options I can see. Option one is that we keep competing the way we have for his attention and by the end of it all, e will hopefully pick one of us to be with. Option two is one of us gives up, but neither of us going to do that, so I guess that one is out the window. And option three is that we try to become friends and support each other to get his affections."

"How is that last one going to work?" asked Cyborg with curiosity.

"Well… Since 2D hates seeing us fight and wants us to get along, it would be probably better to get along, and turn this into a friendly competition sort of thing. That way, when 2D picks one of us it will hopefully hurt him less to lose the other one."

"Why would it hurt him?"

"Well, because that's just the kind of person he is. It hurts him not being able to be with his precious people, and it probably hurts more when he has to choose one over the other, so with something that has such a huge impact as choosing to be with one of us over the other, it might really kill him from the inside out, so hopefully the fact that we are on good terms with one an other will lessen the damage."

"Geez… this is complicated… wait a sec… why does he have to suffer damage at all?" Cyborg asked with a sudden wave of inspiration when a thought suddenly projected its self in her mind.

"What do you mean?" Noodle asked cautiously but with genuine curiosity. "If he chooses one of is, its inevitable that he and the one he did not pick will be badly hurt."

"Exactly." Cyborg said nodding sagely.

"What? Okay, Now you lost me." Noodle said as she folded her arms over chest. "Explain."

"You said '_**IF **__he chooses'_ right?" Noodle nodded her head, "Well, what if he doesn't have to choose? What if he can have both?" Cyborg asked, a sudden spark appearing to light its-self in her eyes as she said this. Yes, if this worked, 2D wouldn't have to suffer, neither of them would have to suffer, _No one_ would have to suffer.

Noodle just looked at her with something that resembled shock. Never in a hundred years would she have thought of that. Its not that the concept was a difficult one, nor that the idea was new. In fact, Polygamy, the idea of having more than one wife, was millennia old and fairly common until up to about one or two hundred years ago, and it was still practiced by some in this day and age. However, Noodle had never seen it, or even considered it a possibility. However, now that the idea was on the table, it certainly offered an interesting possibility. If it worked out, with just a little compromise, all three of them could be happy, all three of them wouldn't have to suffer.

Additionally, since Cyborg was Noodle's clone, they were technically the same person from a certain point of view, and from the point of view of the law, since they were the same person they could be together without any problem. In theory, They could be the only group that could practice polygamy legally anywhere in the world. It was a perfect plan, with a very low risk of failure, after all, what guy would turn down the offer to be with the two women he loves the most in his whole life? It would be practically a dream come true for almost any man in the world.

"You know what cyborg…." Noodle said after a moment, "I don't think that's a bad idea actually."

"You don't?" Cyborg asked with surprise. She had hoped that the idea might get some kind of compromise between them to share him in some way even if he chose one of them, but for Noodle to accept like this was a complete surprise for her.

"Nope, I think it might actually be the best option we have for each other and for 2D. Its also the plan with the highest success rate."

"You think? That's great!" Cyborg cheered.

"Although…."

Immediately Cyborg calmed down and turned to look at Noodle. _–I knew it was too good to be true. I should have expected a catch.- _"Although what?" she asked with curiosity.

"Well, Cyborg…You do understand that for this to work we have to be like family to each other too, right? And I can't say that I love you yet. I think I like you as a person, and that you are someone I could become friends with, but it's going to be a while before I can honestly say that I love you."

The effect was instantaneous, Cyborg could have jumped right there and then and danced a small jig, but she refrained from doing so.

_-A friend? Me? I could be one? I cold HAVE one? That's, I mean I… Wow.-_ A soft warmth spread over her at the idea of having a friend. It was a nice feeling. Not like the Blaze of warmth she felt when she was with 2D, but it was pleasant nonetheless. It made her…happy.

"That's fine Noodle, I feel the exact same way about you." Cyborg said, with one of those very few genuine smiles that Cyborg rarely had plastered on her face.

"Great!" Noodle said happily. How could she not be happy? She had achieved much more than she had dared hope for. She had not only secured a plan of action with Cyborg, she had also made herself a new friend and valuable Partner in the crusade for 2D's heart. "But we better head back to the Mansion, otherwise they are going to think we killed each other. We have been gone for almost two hours now."

"Alright." Cyborg agreed, "By the way, when should we let 2D know about this?"

"Later," Noodle replied, "When we can be almost certain that he will accept us. For now, the best we can do is build our friendship and tease him a bit."

"Tease him?"

"Yeah, I read one of those magazines on the cruise ship on my way here that teasing guys a bit can get them to show you sides of them or things about them, you hadn't seen before, and that in turn would help build and strengthen the bond of a relationship."

"Alright, I guess that sounds plausible. What do you suggest?"

Noodle stopped in her tracks, just a few steps in front the large metal door that was the entrance to the Plastic Beach Mansion, to think about a plan. After a minute or two, a small devious smile suddenly lined her lips as she turned over to cyborg.

"Alright, here is what we are going to do. After 2D has gone to be we are going to sneak into his bed and…."

_Flashback end_

Groggily Cyborg and Noodle woke up from their accidentally achieved momentary comatose state, their heads slightly dizzy from the shock they had received from seeing 2D's glorious nakedness.

Slowly they sat up and looked at each other for a whole minute, before both of them smiled from ear to ear.

"Worth it?" Noodle asked happily.

"Oooohhh yeah!" Cyborg replied merrily, "Totally worth it."

"I couldn't agree more." Noodle said with a slight giggle.

Life had suddenly turned a lot more interesting for the Band members of Gorillaz.

Stone

Stone was driving his beloved truck towards the US with his two work partners. Their boss had made it clear that he wanted the Gorillaz, in particular Murdoc, and that he would do _anything_ to get his hands on them. This meant that the small group had their work cut out for them. Finding any clues that might lead them to the Gorillaz was top priority in their list, and it would stay that way unless they found something or they wanted to die at the hands of Mr. Jackal.

What better place to learn something than the U.S.A, the trade and entertainment capital of the world, the Country with no limits, the greatest military and economic power of the world. Anyone that was anyone had at some point gone there, if you wanted to become one of the elite, you had to make it big there. If you wanted to know something about anyone that was someone, then the U.S.A was the best place to start.

So the U.S.A. was their first stop in information gathering. There they would have to attempt to track the prodigies of the music world that composed the band known as Gorillaz.

And all that Stone could think was: _-God have merci on us… and them.-_

_**TADA!**_** So, what did you all think? INTERESTING? GOOD? BAD? How was it? I am sorry it took me so long, but anyways, here it is! **_**PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO CHECK MY PROFILE FOR THE IMPORTANT NOTICE! An please review!**_

**Alright, I am done for the day. Its like half an hour to one in the morning right now, so I need to sleep. Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed reading the story.**

**Freedragon, logging out.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hello my friends! The dragon is back with another chapter for you all. I am sorry it took so long to get it done, I had a number of problems and set backs, but now I am here to deliver the long awaited chapter 13 of "Awake Again"!**

**And without further ado, I present you my latest creation! Chapter 13!**

**-:-:-:-**

**Chapter 13: Dance with Bullets**

_**Russel**_

Russel sat in the recording studio of plastic beach, which still wore the scorches and cracks of the assault by the boogieman as if they where the wounds of a man that had returned from war. Truth be told, after the attack by the boogie man, the foundations of Plastic Beach had been somewhat damaged, and if there was ever an other attack like it, the island would not survive long enough to see a third one. However, it would have to do for now.

Truth be told, Russel suspected that, no one harbored much love left for the island anymore; even Murdoc was running out of patience with it. It was a sturdy and interesting HQ, that was true, but there were a hundred things that were not…. Appealing about it. To start, the stench of all the trash that composed the island was not pleasant, to say the least, especially in a hot day, the lack of human contact was truly uncomfortable, and to say that the difficulty to attain food and fresh water was inconvenient was an understatement. Not to mention that Murdoc was starting to really itch to finally go "Bird Hunting," as he likes to put it, and living in an island several thousand miles from anywhere in all directions was not particularly ideal for that.

Ding!

The sound of the lift's doors opening brought back Russel from his musings, as he turned his head to glance at the new arrivals to the room. As he had expected, Murdoc and 2D walked out of the lift and headed over to their respective seats in the studio, forming a triangle where they could all face each other to discuss the matter at hand.

"So." Russel began, lacing his fingers together and leaning forwards in his seat, "We all know why we are here?"

"Aye," Russel responded as he took a swig of his bottle rum.

"Yeah," 2D seconded, "We are here to talk about the twenty seventh, aren't we?"

"Exactly right, 2D." Russel nodded, "October twenty-seven. In other words, we are here to talk about Noodle's Birthday."

"We know that Russ," Murdoc interjected impatiently, "Lets get to the point. We have one week to get ready for this. We need to make it count."

Russel raised an eyebrow at Murdoc's choice of words. Since when did _he___care to make anyone's birthday count? And he doubted it was just because Noodle was turning twenty-one years old, and officially leaving her teenage days behind and entering the adult world legally anywhere in the world. If anything, he was still trying to earn her forgiveness, which would explain why he was being so attentive to her. He probably knew that he was on the very edge of a cliff, if he made one bad move, then he would be falling into the pit, and that meant that Noodle wouldn't forgive him for years to come, _if_ he was lucky. It was kind of amusing to see Murdoc actually worried about the fact Noodle, the little girl of the band, was mad at him.

"I was getting to that Mudz." Russel said coolly, before her returned to address the subject at hand. "We haven't seen our baby girl for five years people. _FIVE_ years." Russel paused for a moment to let his words sink in before he continued, "And as if that wasn't bad enough, the girl has been in some kind of dimension between world with the gates of Hell nearby. We can all imagine that it wasn't exactly a grand happy adventure with wild flowers growing on the side of a golden road."

"Get to the point Russ." Murdoc grumbled, earning him a warning glance from Russel.

"As I was saying," Russel continued as if he hadn't been interrupted, "Noodle has had it really rough on this last five years, so we _have_ to make this birthday of hers special, no matter what."

"Agreed." Murdoc acknowledged, "Whatever the moppet wants, she gets…. As long as its not illegal drugs, or a military tank to run my ass over for the whole "El Mañana" fiasco."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" 2D asked cautiously.

"Why would you even ask that, face-ache?" Murdoc shot back at him.

"Well, I don't know… I'm just thinking if we tell her this then we are going to have to follow through with it whether we like it or not right? " 2D asked somewhat uncertainly.

"Yeah, what about it D?" Russel asked curiously.

"Well, what if she asks for a pet tiger? Of Kangaroo? Or a unicorn?" 2D asked worriedly, earning him a couple of _you've-got-to-be-joking_ looks from Murdoc and Russel before they both started laughing at him.

"A kangaroo? Really, face-ache?" Murdoc managed to say when he finally calmed down enough to talk, "I doubt she asks for that, face-ache, but if she did, we could get one. And I can summon a unicorn if she wanted one so there is no problem."

"But what if she asks for something you guys don't agree with?" 2D asked, still somewhat unsure of the whole plan.

"D, listen," Russel said, "Unless its something she is going to use to kill us, drugs, or something that will be harmful to the world, then it will be fine alright?"

"But-"

"Drop it, face-ache." Murdoc interrupted before 2D could finish his sentence, "Lets move on with this little reunion, I want to get it over with."

Realizing that his concern was probably exaggerated and perhaps even without any foundations, 2D opted for dropping the subject as well. Even if he did continue to press the subject he was obviously just going to be ignored. But that was alright he supposed. After all, the guys did have a pretty solid argument; they were the Gorillaz. Pretty much everything was within reach for them, if they tug at a few strings here and there. Besides, it was noodle they where talking about, the sweet and innocent girl that they had always known, so what was the worst that could happen? In fact, she probably wouldn't even ask for much. Perhaps she would ask for only just a thing or two… right?

"Good." Murdoc grunted, taking the silence from 2D that fallowed his statement as a sign that he had dropped the argument, and turned his gaze upon Russel again. "You where saying?"

"Well, now that we have that settled, I think there is a second issue we should discuss." Russel responded, "I think we should move back inland."

A moment of silence stretched over the room, the words that sounded so simple and nonchalant from Russel's mouth suddenly seemed to cling to air and make the atmosphere of the room somewhat more tense.

"And why would we do that?" Murdoc growled out. He knew that Plastic Beach was not in the greatest shape possible, but it still could last for another year or two.

"Murdoc." Russel said flatly as he met Murdoc's mismatched eyes with his own milky white eyes. "Look at this place. It was a fortress before, but now, after the fight with the boogieman, the place is not exactly safe anymore, to say the least. A massive whale rammed support beat of Plastic Beach, I tilted the mansion with my weight before I shrunk, and the boogieman dropped more than just a few bombs here and there. He dropped enough explosive to destabilize the island Murdoc, and you know it. Just look around. Scorch marks are all over the whole outside of the island, cracks and fissures are scattered all over the structure of the island like the wounds of a gladiator after a fight, and there are leaks that are starting up. If there is an other attack like it, the island wont be able to support its self anymore, and it will probably sink."

The room was silent for a minute as Murdoc's mind worked over what Russel had said, trying to find any flaw in his statements. After a whole minute had ticked by while he pondered it, it was 2D who broke the silence.

"I'm sure Noods would appreciate going back inland." He chirped out, "I think she would actually love it as part of her Birthday. Besides, the smell around here during a hot day is just awful Muds! How are we going to keep making music if we cant even breathe without gaging in a hot day?"

Murdoc shot him a glare, and for a second he considered standing up and giving him a good tap on the head with his bottle of rum, but he then realized that 2D had made a very good point that was both relevant _and _smart, and that was enough for him to actually shoot his eyebrows up in surprise for a second before turning his head to look at Russel.

"Did the Dullard just say actually that was relevant and valuable to the conversation Russ?" Murdoc asked almost disbelievingly.

"Yup." Russel said with a slightly surprised tone to his voice.

Murdoc shook his head for a moment before returning to the matter at hand. It did seem like there was really no alternative. With a weary sigh, Murdoc pinched the ridge of his nose and finally relented.

"Alright. Fine." Murdoc grumbled, "We'll get a new HQ."

A smile appeared in 2D's face as well as in Russel's, both glad to have been able to convince Murdoc to get off the accursed island.

"But," Murdoc said quickly, getting the attention of both Russel and 2D, "Where will we move to? Money is not an issue, but location is. We need a place that is isolated, but not completely removed from society. It has to be something between KONG and Plastic Beach. Any ideas?"

"None." Russ said with a frown after a moment.

"I don't either." Murdoc said with a sigh.

"…Well…" 2D said slowly as he closed his eyes and rubbed his chin. However, the fact that 2D had spoken up in this situation was somewhat surprising to Russel and Murdoc. Usually, when it came to choosing residence for… well, anything, 2D never had had much of a say in the matter, manly because he was usually fine with anything as long as it had a good bed and a good kitchen.

"Well what, face-ache?" Murdoc asked curiously.

"What about that place in that island in USA?"

"That place in an USA?" Murdoc asked incredulously before he snorted, "That _really_ narrows t down face-ache, well done. Do you have any idea how many-?"

"Mudz, shut up." Russel interjected. 2D seemed to be awfully useful today, so it was better not to stop him if he was in a roll. "What place 2D?"

"It was a very famous place you know?" 2D said as he closed his eyes tightly in concentration, "It was a prison I think… What was it called now? Alacnas? No that's not it… Azkaban? Andadan? Er… no.. um…. Ardakass…? Er…"

"Alcatraz." Russel whispered out loud, the idea seemingly audacious and incredible to him.

"Yeah, that's it!" 2D said cheerily. "Alcatraz Island."

"Alca-what now?" Murdoc said raising an eyebrow. "The hell is an Alcatraz?"

Russel immediately turned his face to look at Murdoc with surprise. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, I _am_ serious." Said Murdoc with annoyance, "I don't know what the hell this Alacazam Island is, or whatever you call it."

"Mudz, I am surprised you of all people don't know it." Russel said honestly.

"Well stop being surprised and just tell me about the damn thing already." Murdoc snapped at him.

"Fine," Russel said, still in a bit of a shock that _Murdoc_ of all people didn't know about the world famous Alcatraz Island. "Alcatraz was an American world famous ultra-high security prison that was placed in Alcatraz Island, which is about a mile-and-a-half offshore from San Francisco, California. It was basically a mini fortress man, probably because it _was_ a military facility for quite some time. It had bulletproof glass, super thick concrete and steel walls, strategically build to be virtually impenetrable, full of military fortifications and military prisons. Not to mention that it has some pretty damn impressive currents flowing around it, which make for a pretty impressive natural defense. The place was frigging fortress Mudz, no prisoners have ever successfully escaped apparently. And for a prison like that, that is pretty damn impressive. But there are some people that say there are a few ghosts around there too. " Russel paused for a minute in thought before continuing, "Not that I think that's a problem given our history of encounters."

"Woah. Nice." Murdoc said, and surprisingly he said it without a hint of sarcasm for once. "I'm starting to like the sound of this place."

"Yeah, it is." Russel nodded in agreement, "But before you get all wound up about going, there is just one tiny little problem."

"What would this 'problem' be then?" Murdoc asked with curiosity.

"Its property of the Government of the United States of America." Russel said flatly.

"Well, damn." Murdoc said, his tone obviously deflated.

"Er…. No its not." 2D finally spoke up again, making the other two men look at him.

"Of course it is D," Russel said with conviction, "It's a historical site, its not like they just give those out."

"Really?" 2D asked curiously, "'Cause I won it in a government auction like five years ago, before Mudz kidnaped me."

And then there was silence. The words that 2D had spoken had brought a dead silence to the whole room for a solid minute before Russel finally broke it.

"What do you mean," Russel said slowly, "That you … 'won it' in an auction?"

"Hmm? Oh, that," 2D said cheerily, "Well, when the band broke up after demon days, I didn't know what to do with my money, 'cause it kinda felt like I had no use for it. So I kinda decided to blow most of it in the biggest single thing I could find, which just turned out to be that Island thingie."

"Have you ever been there even?" Murdoc asked incredulously.

"Er… no…" 2D said uncertainly.

"D, I don't know if you are an idiot or a genius sometimes." Russel said disbelievingly. Only 2D would waste who knows how many hundreds of millions of dollars in a place like Alcatraz and then forget about it until five years later.

"Er… Thanks?" 2D said uncertainly.

"It must be pretty dirty and stuff though," Russel commented as he thought about it, "We should send a crew to clean the place up and a few architects to fix the place up a bit."

"Sounds like a plan." Murdoc said in agreement. "2D, you are going to have to give them your personal permission to start working on it. We only have seven days to get it ready. Well, only six days actually, considering it will take us the rest of the day to organize everything. We can use the Kong as a model of the style of housing we want, and it should be set."

"Its going to take a lot of money to get everything done in seven days," Russel commented, "But between Mudz and me, we should be able to get more than enough money to fix it."

"Hey! How come face0ache doesn't have to help pay for it!" Murdoc complained.

"Because he already paid for the whole damn place Mudz, which is many times more expensive than renovating it in this case." Russel said as he glared at Murdoc.

"Bah! Fine, whatever." Murdoc Grumbled reluctantly.

"Alright, then we are set." Russel said with a smile.

"Well, its settled boys!" Murdoc said cheerily, "We are moving to Alcatraz!"

-:-:-:-

_**2D**_

Once that it had been settled that they would be moving to Alcatraz, the three men had started to discuss some of the finer details that would take place during Noodles party and the upgrade of their new home. Much of the equipment and electronics around Plastic Beach still worked perfectly, so the majority of that would be transferred to their new home, including the water powered electric generator that was down in the level one basement, their whole recoding equipment and instruments, and Murdoc's hat collection, amongst a host of other things.

They would be upgrading a good section of the buildings there, starting with the majority of the holding cells for the prisoners that used to reside there. The great majority of those would have to be removed, and then the space would be used to make many other larger rooms and halls, and perhaps even an indoor playground sort of thing. Oh, and a bar. Murdoc insisted there had to be a bar.

The electric system of the whole building should be functional, and it probably had its own water-powered electric generator, but it never hurt to have a backup, more modern generator just in case, which was why they were bringing the generator from plastic beach. But the beds probably where horrible in that place, so new beds were to be bought, architects to be hired, and working crews to be assigned. It took them about two hours to make a list of the things they wanted in their new HQ,, along with a few sketches (courtesy of Russel) with some designs and rooms that they wished to have. As soon as that was done, Murdoc took off to talk to Tattoo and their live-in mechanic to let them know about the transfer of locations, and tell them to keep quiet about it for six days, and Russel took off to make all the phone calls and send all the e-mails necessary to make the place look acceptable by the time they were there.

The trickiest part was going to be moving all the stuff without Noodle and Cyborg Noticing too much. It had quickly become apparent that that would be the greatest challenge, since emptying a mansion like Plastic Beach of about a whole third of its contents was not an easy task, even less so with out two highly skilled warriors taking note of it. And that was the reason why 2D had been given the job of entertaining and distracting both girls, whatever the cost, during six days up coming to the switch of locations. During the first four days they only planned to move about a third of what they needed to take, only taking the less noticeable stuff, and in the fifth day, 2D would have to entertain them while an other third of the stuff was removed. On the last day, they would make an excuse to go in land, and there 2D would entertain the girls while the crews finished emptying out the house of the necessary items under the supervision of Murdoc and Russel and transfer them to their new home.

It was a risky plan, one in which one slip up could mean the ruin of half of Noodle's surprise, but it would be worth it. A second mission of 2D was that, at some point, he would have to clarify to Cyborg what a "Birthday" was, and try to make it so that she understood why the attention was on Noodle for that day, lest she became jealous or feel hurt by their accidental lack of attention to her. After all, she was much more human than machine now, and he didn't want her getting her feelings hurt.

2D sighed as he realized how complicated "Operation Relocation", as Murdoc had chosen to call their plan, really was. He wondered if he could really distract and entertain the two girls well enough for the plan to be carried out smoothly. They were both very clever, and they would sense many things easily. Even though 2D had been given license to do whatever it took to keep them busy, this would still prove a challenge.

-_This is going to be hard.-_ 2D thought with a sigh as e approached the lift. _–But it should be worth it.-_

2D entered the lift and let his fingers linger for a second over the button that would lead him to the floor where his room was located, before changing his mind at pressing the button that would drop him off on the level the kitchen was located. Quick snack might be a good idea before going to bed. It was already late, considering that the little meeting with the other band-members had been around eight, and end at about ten at night, he was really starting to feel the exhaustion of the long day, but his stomach might appreciate a little bit of food before going to bed.

2D had almost steppe into the kitchen when he heard a pair of voices that unmistakably belonged to Cyborg and Noodle, causing him to stop in surprise for a minute. He hadn't expected them to be here at this hour, but then again, Noodle was not a little girl that had to be in bed by ten at night anymore, and Cyborg no longer relied on electricity, so she didn't have to go charge by ten any more either.

"Still, I was very surprised." He heard Noodle's voice say, which made his ears perk up in curiosity.

"I know." Cyborg's voice said with agreement, "I've never seen a real one before, but I don't think all of them are like that."

"I'm pretty sure they are not." Noodle responded, before a crunching sound heard and she stopped talking for a moment. Obviously she was eating something. " I read somewhere that in average they are about five-point-five in length and about four in girth, according to scientists anyways."

"Centimeters or inches?" Cyborg asked curiously.

"Inches." Noodle asserted, "I still find it hard to believe that the library of the cruise ship had medical reports like that though. But that's where I got the information."

"Well, anything is possible." Cyborg said wisely, " I mean, look at me, I should have never been able to turn human, but here I am."

"True." Noodle agreed.

"…But still." Cyborg continued after a brief pause, "That was _way_ than five-point-five and four-point-five. That had to be about a foot long by…. Hmm… how thick? Seven?"

"Sounds about right." Noodle said as she obviously munched on something. "Maybe a bit more."

"That sounds painful," Cyborg said with a slight hint of…. Nervousness?

"I think it would be." Noodle consented, "At least at first, but after one gets used to it…"

And at that point 2D realized what they were talking about, and blushed pure crimson before he stumbled away as quietly as a wraith towards the lift. Perhaps a snack wasn't required, yes, it definitely wasn't required today. What he needed to do was go straight to bed and sleep. That's all he needed to do. And quickly.

-:-:-:-

_**Gwen**_

At first Gwen was having a hard time believing what she had learned about their mission from Stone and Nami. She was sure the her two colleagues were exaggerating things when they had informed her of the information they had gathered about the Gorillaz, particularly about their stealth capabilities. After all, it couldn't actually be so hard to find group as famous as the Gorillaz, after all, the media did a lot of their work for them, chasing them everywhere and publishing stories about them any chance they got. However, after a week on the job she was downright shocked how hard it was to track them down.

They had gone through all media that had data about them; Newspapers, internet, magazines, letters, reports, TV shows, and even the resent pirate radio shows Murdoc had done recently, but it seemed like all possible forms of contact had been plugged or filtered professionally, and no obvious data was left behind. It did not help that their traces had all gone cold roughly five years ago and just reappeared less than half a year ago, so they had not an inkling of a hint as to where the location of Plastic Beach might have been.

It both, frustrated and impressed, Gwen immensely.

'_Who knew that tracking such famous people could be so hard?'_ Gwen thought to her self, '_Particularly when they are all this hard to miss!' _

'_I mean,' She thought as she picked up the files of the band-members and scanned the pictures of each file, 'Look at this! One of them is _green _heavens sakes! The other one looks like his eyes were replaced with black crystal balls and has natural _blue _hair, the drummer has neon white eyes that don't even seem to have an iris or pupil, and the short one has _purple_ hair and a Japanese accent. They should _all_ stand out more than a sore thumb! How the hell did they just vanish off the radar for _Five _years?'_

She let out an exasperated sigh and set the files down on the car seat besides her while Nami read their biography "Rise of the Ogre" in an attempt to uncover anything that they might use to further their quest.

"Any luck with that book?" Gwen asked offhandedly at Nami. She was truly wondering if they were going to find anything anytime soon. However, all she managed to get from Nami for a second was a slight frown as she set down the book on her lap and closed her eyes for a second before replying.

"Well…. Not exactly. It just has reinforced some of our suspicions, though no I have reevaluated my assessment of the band members." She stated, " The book has confirmed our suspicions about them being hard to kill, however, the most surprising thing about that is that our main objective, Murdoc, wont be the hardest to kill directly."

"He won't?" Gwen asked with surprise. As far as she knew, the man had survived quite a few encounters with some decently skilled hit-men, so she had assumed that he would have been the hardest to kill or capture. "Then who?"

"The tall one, 2D." Nami replied.

" You are joking." Gwen said with some disbelief.

"Not at all." Nami said seriously. "Assuming that we have them all cornered, he would be a huge obstacle if he chose to step in front of his friends."

"Why?" Gwen asked curiously, "By all accounts he is not the sharpest tool in the shed, nor does he have much more muscle than the average person. He really shouldn't be any trouble."

"At first glance, you are right." Nami consented, before she opened the book on her lap and looked at it briefly before looking at Gwen again. "If a car with four or five big men was driving towards a persons head, how fast would it have to go before the normal person's head would break and kill the person?"

Gwen frowned for a minute at the seemingly random question but decided to play along with her for now. "Well… it can vary quite a bit, but if you hit the front of the adult human skull, to cause a simple fracture the average is between fifteen and thirty pounds per inch, but to crush a skull you need at least ten to twelve times more pressure than that."

Nami nodded at her in agreement before Gwen continued.

"So assuming it's an average low to mid weight car, and its not a truck or minivan or anything like that, and we are assuming that each of this five persons weighs like seventy kilos right? Well lets see… lets say that the car weighs one thousand-one hundred kilos... hmmm… we are talking of almost fifteen hundred kilos here… sooo….You wouldn't even need to go thirty kilometers per hour to crush even the strongest human skull if the car is that loaded." Gwen concluded after doing the math quickly in her head.

"Right." Nami agreed with a nod, "In fact, if anyone could survive a car that heavy going that quickly, then it would be a record right?"

"Well of course! That would be enough basically crush any skull into itty-bitty pieces." Gwen replied.

"Well, surprise!" Nami said with out humor, "This guy here," She said as she pointed to the picture of 2D, "He survived getting hit on the head with a car like that, loaded with four big men and Murdoc, going at seventy miles an hour, which is about a hundred and ten kilometers per hour. And he didn't just survive, the only noticeable damage after wards was the fact that he fractured one eyeball and was in a comma for a week or two. And then he woke up from the coma from being flung out of a car at about a hundred miles an hour, which is like a hundred and sixty kilometers per hour, and smashing his head against the side of the road's curb. And even then he didn't break his head! Reportedly, he stood up like a frigging lord of the undead and walked out with his second fractured eyeball."

There was a pause that stretched for a few seconds as the words Nami had spoken sank in, only broken by the soft sound of the car's engine as stone drove down the desolate highway. It was a few more seconds before stone broke the silence.

"Well, that's… unexpected."

"Unexpected? The guy practically has bones made out of reinforced Titanium or something!" Gwen replied with slightly exasperation.

"What else do you have on him Nami?" Stone continued.

"He knows how to wield the scythe hand guns like a pro, the hand guns reportedly been taught to him by his friend and Band member Noodle during their 'Phase Two: Demon Days' era. Additionally, he seems to be slow in the head, but he allegedly has some of the best instincts around."

"Huh, so the boy has a few surprises about him," Gwen said thoughtfully, "Well, it shouldn't make too much of a difference I guess. We are to try to capture them first, and kill them if that proves impossible. But this should be fine, its not like the other band members are packing surprises like that anyways."

"Well, actually…. apparently the blue-haired pretty boy isn't the only one that has a few surprises for us." Nami stated as she dug out a second file and flipped few pages in the book. "The little girl of the band is also a hard one to take down. She was reportedly part of a military experiment to make super soldiers."

"You are kidding." Gwen said with surprise.

"Not at all. The girl is proficient with several types of firearms and has excellent close combat skills too. However the extent of the success as a military experiment is unknown." Nami said, earning a whistle from Stone.

"The little girl is no joke either then." He stated.

"And the drummer is also a fairly impressive obstacle." Nami continued. "He is impressively large, but don't be fooled, he might weigh three hundred pound but most of it is muscle. Not only that, but he has a lot of brains too, given to the fact that he attended some of the most difficult and prestigious schools in the world, and managed to get top grades frequently."

"Well damn," Gwen muttered somewhat grumpily, "This just keeps getting better and better."

"Oh that's not the last of it," Nami continued, "Murdoc himself is a criminal mastermind, and he allegedly knows a fare bit of sorcery to boot. He might not be very impressive physically, but he is no less dangerous than the others. And to top it all off, he apparently made a cyborg-style clone of Noodle, so they have an additional fighter too."

This time the silence that settled inside the van was heavy, and stretched for a good minute before anyone managed to talk again.

"So…" Gwen finally spoke up, "Basically, we are facing the hardest fight we've ever had so far?"

"Yup." Nami replied.

"And these guys can basically turn into the hunters as quickly as they can turn into the hunted at any point during the mission?

"Yup." Stone replied.

"Sooooo….." Gwen said as she thought things over for a second, "We have a very good chance of getting fucked over."

"Yup." Both Stone and Nami replied.

"Great…" Gwen said with a sigh.

-:-:-:-

**AAAAANNDDD CUT! WHEW! ALRIGHT BOY AND GIRLS! THAT'S IT FOR TODAY! As you guys can see, things are starting to heat up around the Gorillaz world, and as requested, I have added a bit more spice to the fic. I have also been requested to write lemons in this fic. My friends, I leave it to your choice. Shall there be lemons? Or shall there not be? YOU DECIDE! FREEDRAGON'S STORY POLL TIME! **

**Alright, this is freedragon, logging out! **


	14. Chapter 14

**YOU ALL READY FOR THIS? Alright here we go. =3 I'ma shot straight for the stars in this rock, the time in your clock Ima stop it with kryptonite in my pocket, cause I wrote chapter which you'll probably love.**

Go on! Read and review, THANK YOU TO ALL WHO SUGGESTED ME IDEAS! It was highly appreciated for this chapter =3

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**Hush Hush!**

**2D**

2D was a man of many talents; He could sing, he could write music, he could understand people easily, and he could withstand almost any amount of physical punishment and survive. But one thing he had never really gotten the hang of was the art of redirecting others attention to where he wanted them to pay attention. It was almost like a game of chance whenever he tried to do so. Sometimes it would work flawlessly, as if he was a grand master of the art, and others it wouldn't work at all.

Still, that didn't change the fact that he had to distract both Noodle and Cyber Noodle while Murdoc and Russel got everything else ready for moving to Alcatraz. Ideally, he had to keep them outside the mansion for as long as he could until everything was ready.

'_The problem is_,' He thought to himself with a frown, '_How do I do that_?"

After sitting down and thinking about it for five whole minutes, he gave an exasperated sigh. Nothing. Not a single thing occurred to him that could keep the girls busy for _five_days. How the hell was he going to do that?

'_Fate is fickle, Luck is a drunk, and Life is a bitch_.' 2D thought with a humorless chuckle. '_They forgot to mention that Inspiration is blind_.'

2D shook his head and rid himself of useless thoughts. He really didn't need to dwell in useless thoughts right now, he needed to think. Idly he looked out the window as his mind began to wander. It was such a nice day... The sun was shining, the waves were rolling in playfully chasing each other, the small part of the island that was actually a beach was shinning invitingly... And all the while he was in the mansion because he only had a couple of hours before Murdoc and Russel started moving things and he had to come... Up... With...

'_That's it_!' 2D thought excitedly as he bolted up from his seat with a look of happy revelation upon his face, '_The beach_!' After a second of further thought, he could have smacked his own face in annoyance, and he did. _How_ did he _not_think of this earlier? They lived in an island for crying out loud! It wasn't like it should take a lot of thought to figure out that the ocean could be used as a recreational thing. Even a kid would have thought of it.

Grumbling in annoyance at his own stupidity and and cursing under his breath, 2D finally regained his composure after taking a deep breath, his pouting face replaced with a small smile that began to grow until he was sporting a full-blown grin. After all, who cared if it took him a while to think of something so obvious? At least he had figured something out that would buy them some time.

Still grinning like a fool, 2D ran to inform Russel and Murdoc where the girls and him were going to be so that whatever transportation the other two band members had arranged to move the possessions of the band stirred clear of the side of the island that had an actual beach. Hopefully, his plan would work and everything would turn out alright.

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2D's plan threw everyone into a frenzy of activity. Murdoc and Russel were already barking out orders through their radios and phones to the boats and planes that had been on standby since earlier that day, and Noodle and Cyborg were scrambling around in their wardrobes like hurricanes to find a suitable swimming suit to wear.

And of course, by "suitable" they meant something that would not only fit them, but also make 2D notice them. Teasing him had quickly become one of the favorite pastimes of the new duo of girls, and they were not planning on letting up any time soon.

2D, for his part, was just glad to be laying on a wide beach towel under the sun in his blue swimming trunks and a pair of dark sunglasses. All he had to do now was relax and take in the sun until the girls got there and then just relax. No excitement, no rush, none of that... Only peace and quiet.

But then again, Life has an interesting sense of humor.

2D had been an hour by himself already, and was wondering what was holding the girls up for so long... They were usually pretty quick. Had they some how caught on to the plan...?

"Hey! Twooo-DeeeeEEEeee..." A sweet female voice that was all too familiar called out at him, causing him to snap out of his musings an look around in an attempt to find the source of the voice, only to hear a couple of giggles and a second feminine voice that was awfully similar to the first ring out behind him, "Over here, you goof!"

2D propped himself up on his elbows and bent his head backwards curiously, so that he was looking behind him at everything upside down.

He almost fell down in surprise.

Not even two dozen feet behind him, Noodle and Cyborg stood behind him in their bathing suits with linked up and each carrying a basket, and smiling at him brightly. But what really startled him was what they were wearing... And how well they filled it out.

Noodle was wearing a bottom that seemed like short-shorts designed to double as swiming trunks and a bikini top that managed to show off her breasts and hips nicely, and Cyborg was wearing the inverse of Noodle, sporting a bikini bottom and a top that reminded him of a tube-top that ended just bellow her breasts, which also showed off her figure. Imagine 2D's (very plesant) surprise when he realised that both girls were a large B-cup that bordered on C-cups instead of the aparent medium A-cup that they seemed to have when wearing their clothes. Somehow, in the back of his mind it made sense, considering that they were warriors, they probably used bandages or some other kind of material to hide their their breasts in order to move around more freely.

However, that thought was left aside as soon as Noodle's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"2D, are you alright?" She asked as innocently as possible, having to hold back a grin when he started blushing a rosy pink color. This actually sooo fun!

"Yeah," Cyborg agreed, imitating Noodle's innocent according to plan. Now it was her job to push things just a liiiittle bit more... "You've been just staring for a while now," Cyborg said as she slowly bent over to look at him until she was bending at an almost ninety degree angle with a hand to her hip and pushing out her chest just enough to make it noticeable. "Are you okay?"

The result was instantaneous. 2D's face went from a rosy blush to a scarlet color that tinged his cheeks. He didn't trust himself to talk right then, so he opted instead for giving a slight nod of assurance as the girls started to walk towards him again, conpleatly oblivious that the girls were actually having to strain themselves to maintain the act of obliviously innocent girls and sprint towards him and give him a big hug and start screaming "Cute!" at 2D. Who knew that a grown man could actually look so cute when flustered? But try managed to contain the urge and keep their game faces on. They had a plan and they needed to stick to it.

Besides, they were just having the time of their lives as they teased 2D, and they weren't going to stop right in the middle of it.

Once it registered in 2D's brain that they were getting closer, he practically sprung up in the air and sat up cross-legged and in a slightly haunched over position and silently thanked God he wasn't wearing speedos or any other sort of tight-fitting clothing. He was never so glad to have the ocean in front of him as an excuse to focus on something else rather than girls.

Speaking of the girls, they closed the gap between them and their love interest at a leisurely pace, maintaining their carefully placed facade of innocence in place and sitting at either side of 2D and opening their baskets. As it turned out, only one of the baskets, the one Noodle was carrying, was a picnic basket, and the one under Cyborg's care was as portable cooler that contained several drinks and treats laying on cold ice.

And to 2D's horror, he caught a glimpse of something he knew, that he just _KNEW_would cause him grief today. Despite the healthy tan he was now wearing, 2D on obviously paled at the sight, and gulped instinctively.

In the cooler, he had managed to catche sight of many ice-cold Popsicles.

-_God give me strength..._- He prayed in his mind imploringly, just before Cyborg and Noodle both pulled out a popsicle and began to suck on them suggestively.

Poor 2D had a _loooooooong_day ahead of him.

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Russel

Russel flipped his phone closed as he finished giving orders to the boats that would pick up the first load of the band's items and luggage as quietly as possible from the opposite side of the island to the one 2D and the girls were using. Hopefully, 2D would be able to keep the girls bossy for a few hours, while Murdoc directed the crews that were assigned to help transport all their luggage to the boats.

The plan they had laid out originally had been tweaked up a bit and while it was still simple, now it was more efficient, and required things to be very precise. Russel and Murdoc would take care of setting up the transportation while 2D guided the girls to somewhere isolated, then Murdoc would guide the transportation crews into the mansion and show them what to take while Russel kept an eye on 2D and the girls if he was able to, just in case something beyond 2D's capabilities did surge up. Finally, when the transportation crew finally left, Murdoc and Russel would try to signal 2D in some way so that he could end his efforts to distract the girls if he needed or wanted to.

The plan sounded simple, but carrying it out quietly and without arousing suspicion was much more complicated than one would believe.

With this in mind, Russel brought his binoculars up to his eyes and set himself by a window in one oh the higher floors of the mansion, were he could better keep an eye on 2D and the girls.

It turned out to be a much more interesting experience than he had bargained for.

For one thing, he had never expected Noodle and Cyborg to seemingly get along so well. For an other, he didn't expect them to act with so much... Flare. He observed their actions carefully, and after a while he began to suspect, with frightening accuracy, what the girls were planning. Russel was a very observant man, and though he didn't have a reputation with members of the opposite sex as large as 2D's or even Murdoc's, he arguably understood the female mind much better than either of his band mates.

Truth be told, even Russel wasn't completely sure of their motives, nor was he quite sure how to react to what he was observing. At first he just wanted to give 2D a good punch in the face for looking at his baby girl in _that_way, but it was clear that he was doing his best to keep in line. Then he wanted to scold Noodle, but she was an adult now, and he had much less leverage on her actions now, and he couldn't scold her like when she was twelve years old. Then he just wanted to laugh at 2D's predicament. He also pitied the man somewhat, but watching him squirm and stumble away was making it hard for Russel to not burst out laughing.

Perhaps he should just observe for a while and keep an eye on the three of them... Yes, that would be wiser. That way he could gather more information to confirm his suspicions. Plus, he might get a get kick out of watching them too. but if his suspicions proved right... He would have to have a talk with 2D...

A sudden movement at the beach caught his attention, breaking his line of thought as he refocused on his three charges. Russel had caught sight of 2D suddenly bolting up right and diving into the ocean. Russel chuckled and shook his head. If the girls were trying to do what he thought they were trying to do... 2D had just jumped from the pan onto the blazes.

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2D

2D had been forced to dive into the water too cool off his head after a very... _visually stimulating_show on part of the girls. Be it by instinct or by planning, the girls knew a thing or two about posing and acting, and they were using those abilities to their full extent to tease 2D, doing things that ranged from an innocent stretches that 'coincidentally' made their breasts or butt push out suggestively, to hugging his arms (or eachother) playfully, to sucking on Popsicles suggestingly (complete with small moans and other such sound effects) and commenting on how tasty and refreshing they were.

It was little surprise that he had decided to bolt away and dive into the water, after more than half an hour of their teasing. Any lesser man would have already lost it by then.

That said, Noodle and Cyborg could only look at each-other and smile widely. _Now_they could pull a few new tricks.

Pulling out an inflatable beach ball of transparent plastic, the girls blew it up until it was nice and round and ran to the beach to play with it... And 2D.

Who would have thought that their bathing suits became partially see through when wet?

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-/Three hours later- 6:45 PM/-

"2D! We are going back in now." Noodle called out at him from the shore while cyborg dried herself beside her, "You coming?"

"Uhh... Yeah!" 2D replied lamely, searching for an excuse to stay behind for a little while, "I just need to... Umm... Get rid o some kelp that's wrapped around my foot."

2D, whos whole body bellow half way up his belly was hidden by the ocean water, congratulated himself on the excuse. It would give him time to calm down his erection... Or at least buy him enough time so that he could leave the water without the girls seeing it. Russel had given him the signal that he could go back in to the mansion over an hour ago, but die to his hard problem, he had been unable to leave. He was ever so grateful that the girls had gotten tiered and wanted to go back into the mansion now.

On the shore, Noodle just stood there and giggled at him for a moment, seeing through his obvious little lie right away, understanding the real reason for his hesitancy to get out of the water.

She played with the idea of teasing him even more, but it was late and she was tiered... Maybe an other time she would get the chance. Besides, she was more than satisfied with the reactions she and Cyborg got from 2D.

"Alright!" Noodle called back at him, "See you inside then!"

And with that, she and cyborg gathered up most of their belongings in a second and began to walk away from the beach, talking with eachother and doubtlessly reliving some of the more entertaining moments of the day with 2D.

2D waited for a few minutes before following them, getting out of the water and walking out in an awkward haunched over position until he reached his towel and wrapped himself in it. It would do. Nodding to himself as he looked himself over with a quick glance, he began to march back to the mansion.

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Stone

It was already deep into the night, a time were the only lights out are the moon and the stars, and the street-lamps that lit the deserted roadway along which a lone Cadilac cursed at high speeds, te driver trying to reach his destination before their chance slipped away.

"Stone," Gwen said at the driver, Slight anxiety marking her words, "How much further?"

"Not far." Stoned said shortly, focused entirely on the road as he double the speed limt at two hundred kilometers an hour. "Ten minutes at most."

Nami glances at her watch, which read half an hour past midnight. "I hope so Stone. The contact will leave in fifteen minutes if we don't meet him. He can't risk anymore than that."

Shooting Nami a squick ideways glance, Stone nodded determinately. "Hang on to something."

Nami and Gwen barely had time to process his words before Stone stepped on the gas, easily reaching three hundred kilometer an hour within the span of fifteen seconds, and keeping it down until they were flying just a hair shy of three hundred and fifty. Naturally, the girls were slammed back against ther seats, the sudden acceleration which keeped them in place until the Cadilac reached a constant speed.

"Damn it Stone!" Nami groaned out, "be softer with the accelerator!"

Stone snorted without looking back at her, eyes pealed for the location they were to meet the contact at. "We don't have time for being soft right now, Carrot-Top."

Nami had to swallow a retort when she realized that he was right. If they had time, they wouldn't _need_to be rushing down a deserted road in the middle of nowhere at more than triple the speed limit and hundreds of miles away from the nearest city.

Gwen, for her part, just grunted in agreement with Stone, and looked over the papers that described the profile of their contact once more. The photo showed a skinny man with an angular face which was partially covered by thick round sunglasses that rested over his sharp nose, as he leaned on a blind man's walking stick, his hair a dirty blond mixed in with some kind of ugly slimy green color, giving it a greasy and dirty appearance. His pale skin and scruffy chin contrasting against the tattered purple trench-coat that reached his knees and the dirty green vest he wore bellow it. Added to that, he wore dirty brown cargo pants that had several small tears and a pair of perfectly well kept black leather dress shoes. All in all, a very bizarre character that was only made more bizarre, and creepy, by the lopsided grin that stretched across his face.

Even Gwen, who was well acquainted with the sort of people that the underworld contained, found his looks rather... Eccentric, for lack of a better word. Nonetheless, the word was that he was one of the best at acquiring information in the world, working under the alias of "Joker", a fitting name given his twisted grin, she supposed.

According to his profile, he was a wizard level computer hacker, one of the world's top ten hackers, capable of bypassing countless security systems on his own. Additionally, he was an adept spy, able to extract information without arising suspicion and a very carefully woven spy network. With such skills and resources under his belt, it was little wonder he was one of the best of the best at his trade.

Still, the man did not inspire confidence to her by his looks. But he was their only hope right now….

Five minutes later Stone was screeching down to a halt in front of a lonely old tavern in the middle of the road, inside, they found a few patrons and the the bartender…Or rather, the Joker, with the exact same attire as he had on the profile document.

"Welcome! Welcome!" He said with a cheery but somewhat wheezy voice, "What can I get for you lot?"

Stone stepped forward coolly and sat down on the front stalls right in front of the bartender, ignoring all the looks that the other shady looking costumers were giving him as if it was nothing. The girls followed suit and sat with him.

"I was hoping for some lime and rum from Captain Toom," Stone began, using the agreed on code words to alert the joker of their presence, "And a dark smile from the jokers tune."

Stone concluded the rhyme, and the bartender froze for a split of second, before shaking it off and smiling at them again. "Ah! Of course. Come with me please. Remi!" The Joker called out to a large burly man wearing an apron over a muscle shirt. "Take are of the pub for a minute. I need to find something."

The burly man only grunted and turned back to watch the crowd.

Down in the basement, were the Joker was taking the odd threesome, a wooden table with four seats could be found, with a small envelope that was unsigned It was this package that the Joker handed to Stone and the girls, before leaning on the table and speaking quickly.

"All the files are there. You best move soon, I heard a rumor of some large ships moving in their direction. And if they are moving, then all this information is useless."

Stone only nodded and dropped a back of gold on the mans hand before he turned on his heel and stepped back out the door towards his Cadi, the girls following him closely.

"Well, we got the data now." Stone said tiredly as he tossed the envelope to Gwen as he fastened his seatbelt and started the car simultaneously. "So, where too?" Stone asked as Gwen opened the envelope and read it quickly, a blank look showing on her face.

Finally she looked up and said decisively: "To point Nemo, the farthest place from any landmass on the planet."

"And where IS that? Towards the west. Now hurry stone!" She urged him, "the beach is not exactly next door.

Stone sighed and nodded. It seemed like he was going to be peeding all the way to the coast. Sighing, he finally answered.

"Lets just go before the motor burns down."

And with that, they rode away towards the west

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**AAAAAAAAANNNNNDDD CUT! Brilliant! There is my latest update. Enjoy =3**


	15. Chapter 15

**HELLO WORLD! Sorry for the massive delay in the Chapter updates, I had midterms, and, as if that wasn't enough, I lost my iPod that had the updates for both chapters! Ugh! But whatever, The dragon is back now!**

Come my friends! Let me spin the threads of fairytales for you.  
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**Chapter 15  
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2D

2D sighed, and plopped down on his bed after a long day with the girls. Dealing with them was surprisingly harder than he imagined, and their advances were becoming more daring by the day. In all truth, it was surprising he had even managed to keep control of himself as much as he had; any lesser man would have already lost it and gotten the jump on the two girls.

Regardless of his achievements about his abstinence so far, he was growing increasingly concerned about whether or not he would be able to able to keep resisting them. Sure, he had will power. But he had been stuck in an island for more than 3 years, maybe 4… hell if he knew, since time seemed to have blurred together during his captivity. In any case, the point being that he had _not _had any kind of sexual release in _years_. And the girls were looking pretty damn fine if you asked him, specially since Noodle had finally regain much if the weight that she had lost during her trip to hell and back. It was borderline torture holding back his sexual urges, that's what it was.

He groaned as he realized the strain that it was becoming to deal with the teasing girls as they became more creative and daring as time went by. He didn't even want to imagine what Russel and Murdoc would do to him _if_ anything did happen. It gave him chills just imagining it.

In the bright side, the moving had gone surprisingly well, to the point that Murdoc and Russel had agreed to speed things up a bit. They would move the plan up by a few days to get it al out of the way, but they had made a couple of changes… Mainly, they were no longer were they going to New York. The reason being that it simply had way _too _much. Noodle would appreciate people yes, but NA was just too much of a contrast right now. Too loud, too many people, too many things… They wanted her to have fun, not have a head splitting headache.

Instead they would just go around San Francisco for a few days with the excuse of going as part of Noodle's early birthday gift, just while the movers finished emptying the mansion and transferring it to Alcatraz. Not only would it provide time for the movers to get everything done, but it would also be a pleasant surprise for Noodle, who obviously didn't appreciate the stench of plastic beach and was sure to enjoy walking around the sprawling city that wasn't much too loud.

Still, all he could do was try to hang on for now. He had a mission to do and like hell if he wouldn't do it! Considering that this was for the sake of the whole band, more importantly, of his two little luvs, he would be damned if he wouldn't try his best to get it done.

But for now, he would get some sleep. The girls were showering and getting cleaned up and all that before they went to bed, so he would take advantage of that and get a head start in the sleeping department. God knew that he needed to rest after all that had happened.

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Nami

The drive had been long and exhausting, but after a couple of days they had managed to reach the beach, where their second contact would meet them and they could plan their next move. In all honesty, Nami and the rest of the crew had hopped that now that they had the location of the Gorillaz, it would be as simple as getting their contact to get them a boat and just set off to Point Nemo.

Unfortunately for them though, fate is rarely as kind as we would like it to be.

"What do you _mean, _No?!" Nami hissed with a clearly pissed of expression in her face. It wasn't like her to get angry, but this was just ridiculous from her point of perspective. "You are a sailor aren't you? A captain too at that! Why not?" She demanded.

"Now look here missy," A large burly man with a bright red beard and green eyes said as he chewed on worn out pipe, "I am a man of the sea, yes, and I am a captain, but there are a few reasons why I won't take you there."

"Which are?" Gwen demanded as she crossed her arms, also frustrated by the fact that their mission had more delays.

"Well les' see… " The man said as he thought how to explain himself, "Do yah know the deep seas at all?"

The Stone and the girls replied with a quick shake of their heads to signify that they knew nothing about it. With a sigh, the muscly sailor leaned back in his chair and pulled the pipe of his lips for a second while he gathered his thoughts. Looking up at the ceiling of his cabin he frowned slightly before he looked back at them and explained.

"Well tha first reason is quite simple. Its dangerous. Very dangerous… Yah see, Point Nemoi is at a location most sea men prefer not to get close to if they can help it. The reason is simply 'cause the area is riddle with old underwater landmines, strong undercurrents, miniature vortexes, and it's a meeting place for conflicting winds sometimes, which means nasty storms if you are unlucky enough to be in the area. Storms so nasty that even a large ship could be pulled under easily."

"But you are an experienced sailor," Stone pointed out calmly, "You probably could manage a surprise or two from the sea."

The captain nodded at him in return. "Aye, that I am, one of the best if I do say so myself. But even the best can't overpower nature if she sees it fit to squash you like a bug. Right now, it's ah usually calm time fo' those seas, but the sea is fickle and I would rather not risk it. But, if it was just that, I might still do it, which brings me to tha second problem."

"Which is?" Gwen asked quickly.

"That they won't be there by the time you get there, even if I did take you there, and we arrive in one piece." He said bluntly as he chewed on his old pipe. "Its common sense lad, I hear things you know? Word has it that someone has contracted a fairly large amount of ships with the best captains around to transport things from the middle of the sea to inland, to be shipped somewhere else. Now, that wouldn't be much of news to the regular person, but if you consider that the general area of the transportation, according to the rumors, and then you realize that Point Nemo is really near by, then its not hard to imagine who has contracted them and for what."

The team of three was shocked into silence for a moment. They Gorillaz were _moving_. Meaning their intel was soon to become obsolete… and their necks would be at risk of becoming dog food… or more likely, hyena food.

"Are you sure there is no way to get there quickly?" Gwen asked quickly, a hint of desperation marking her voice.

"Positive lad. They have been transporting things for nearly a week now." The sailor replied without hesitating, "According to my experience, unless they are trying to empty an entire village, with the amount of personnel they hired they should be close to finishing now."

"Any idea where they are going?" Nami inquired sharply, her posture somewhat more stiff than before.

"Eh, not a clue." The man replied with a shrug, "They are clever ones they are. They chose some o' the most tight lipped captains in the seas."

Gwen's face suddenly fell, showing obvious disappointment, and given her constitution and admittedly cute face, it made an incredibly heart moving sight. The expression "a single look could break your heart" was not an exaggeration here. Most men would have felt their heart ache and have a sudden urge to help her.

Which was why it was one of her most effective techniques as an interrogator.

The built sailor looked at her face for a moment and his eyes became softer and nearly sad as he gazed at her. She was similarly built to his daughter, which just added that much more weight to his heart when he saw her look like that. He thought for a moment, his face betraying his look of concentration. Perhaps he _could_ do something…. The idea struck him as he struggle to gather all information that he had heard even remotely related to Point Nemo recently, and a glint in his eyes suddenly became visible.

"BUT!" the captain said with a sudden look of illumination, "I might be able to give you a few guesses…"

Right away Gwens face lit up , her large eyes looking aup at him hopefully and innocently, making the man's pride swell up as her look made him feel like the hero who had saved the day.

"How?" Stone asked suspiciously, and he had good reason to be cautious now. The man had just stated that he didn't have the location, then how could he all the sudden have a few specific guesses? The years of accumulated experience he had gathered working as the hound of Jackal had taught the man to be cautious, and he would be damned if he wasn't going to be cautious with the sailor too.

The Sailor Grinned broadly, and thumped his chest with the side of his large fist with confidence, briefly making a show of confidence briefly before replying.

"Ha! I've been sailing the waters of the world since ma' father took me in a boat at the age of three, ma' friend! I know a thing or two about boats and their directions. U may not know the EXACT location you look for, but I can sure as hell narrow down the options and give it a good guess based on the movements of the boats and what I've heard and what I know!" The sailor said with an air of a teacher explaining the basics to his pupils, " See, there are areas o' the seas where men won't go though if they can avoid them, and there are also common routes used by sailors to get from one place to an other, and there are habits captains of boats build over the years to ensure they arrive to their destinations. Now, they may not say much, the captains I mean, but the younger members o' the crew often aren't as tight lipped as they are. Sometimes they let their tongues slip when they have a few drinks and begin to brag about where they've been and their latest endeavors, leaving hints of where they are going through or about what their employers say."

The sailor then leaned forward, feeling the awe that radiated from Gwen as he spoke his words, and, to a lesser extent, the honest surprise and interest of Stone and Nami. He suddenly felt like the star of the show, the big hero who had just rescued the drowning fellows before him with his bare hands. It was like when his daughter was a little girl again, and admired his ability to do things with his skills. And he loved the feeling, making him feel fifteen years younger, as strong and nibble as he was when he was in his thirties as he continued to talk.

"Yah see, the boat seem to be in a hurry, and they are probably going to take a very fast route. They also appear to be going through and near certain 'landmarks' that are well known to me. If I had to guess, I would say they would land on the Western Side of the USA coasts, particularly this part." The sailor pulled out a map and circled a few areas of the Southern part of the American west coast with a pen. "Now, if we consider that the people you are looking for are probably traveling by air, and the amount of boats and the storage, then the best bet would be the big cities along the shore line, where large boats are not unusual and personal planes are not uncommon. So if we judge all these things…. Plus the most likely routes would be these ones…. I am guessing that Los Angels or San Francisco are your best bet!

The sailor concluded with a large grin clapped down the pen on table, the map now full of little scribbles and tiny marks made by him, but the two cities he had mentioned firmly circled and with a star above each one, signifying their best bets, and, unknown to the sailor, their hope for survival from Jackal.

"…Incredible." Stone finally said as he stared at the map. The man had just potentially saved them from a very gruesome and cruel death at the Hands of Jackal, and for that he was very grateful. Now that he thought about it, even if the man was wrong about the location, he had narrowed their searching area significantly. It would be much easier to search just the south area of the West coast that rather than the coasts of three countries. And that was another thing to be thankful for. Without wasting time Stone grabbed them map and pulled out a leather pouch containing a more than generous amount of money, gold coins to be specific, which he handed to the sailor. It might be old-school, but a single coin of pure gold was worth several hundred dollars, thus making it easier to transport than a suitcase of bills in this case.

"Thanks for your help." Stone replied as he rolled up the map, "It was most helpful."

"Don't mention it." The sailor said with a satisfied smile as he picked up the pouch of gold, waving his hand in a friendly dismissal of his words, "I'm glad I could help. And you take care, yah, hear?" He finished as he looked at Gwen significantly, to which Gwen Replied by giving him a bright smile and, surprisingly, a large hug in front of everyone before turning around and walking out her partners.

"I will! Bye Mr. Sailor!" She concluded with a grin as she walked out.

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"Nice Job back there." Nami said to Gwen once the group was on the road again, "That was very convincing."

"It's what I do." Gwen replied with a smirk, "I gather information."

"Don't get too happy yet," Stone spoke up with a neutral tone of voice as he drove down the highway, "We know where they are _probably_ going. Its not a fact, just an educated guess based on the sailor's experience and what little info he could gather."

Nami crossed her arms and huffed with frustration, at Stone's words, obviously irritated by the reminder. "well its all we got right now, which is a hell of a lot more than we had about an hour ago, so might as well be happy about it." She said with a clipping tone.

"It is all we have," Stone agreed with a slight nod without taking his eyes of the road, "But don't forget, the thing that spoils the fastest on this earth is Information."

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**AAAAANNNNND CUT! Sorry, I know this might be a bit short compared to my normal amount of writing, but I am sooooo busy with midterms hat this is all that I have managed to squeeze out of my free time (12 midterms is a killer. Ugh. On the bright side, last one is this week! Fuck yeah! XD… but then its finals… Eff my life…)  
Anyways, how about it? Is there enough drama and tension building up for you guys? Let me know what you think please! Ideas, questions, comments, etc, anything like that, just let me know. Leave a comment and I'll do my best to reply!  
This is dragon, over and out.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hello world! Yes, I am back, did you miss me? Yeh, I know it's been a while, what with all those finals and family holidays taking up all of my time...but now I'm here! So! Let me put up a couple of announcements.**

First up, I believe I will be editing the chapters I have so far soon, so if you are interested in re-reading the whole story I would suggest to wait until I edit it.  
Second, for all of you Mythology and Supernatural lovers, things are starting to go down soon! Keep an eye out for that!  
Last point worthy of note would be that I will have an answering session at the end of the chapter were I will answer some questions that have been asked about the story.

**By the way… Fair warning: Murdoc will use some… colorful vocabulary in this chapter. You'll see what I mean.**

**That said, ONWARDS! TO THE STORY! WITH PASSION AND GLORY!**

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0  
**_  
**Chapter 16: Shootout Boogy  
**

"Ahhh... Ain't this nice?" a certain green-skinned fellow with mismatched eyes exclaimed as he stretched his back, "It was about time we had a little, err... Family vacation, yeh?"

"Yeah, it's been a while." Russel commented as he loaded up the bags in the aircraft that would take the band to their destination overseas, "and I think everyone needs it, especially after yesterday."

"Tell me about it." Murdoc grumbled as he chewed on his wooden pipe, his mind inadvertently recalling the previous day.

**-0-0-0-One Day Earlier-0-0-0-  
**

"WE ARE GOING WHERE?!" Noodle shouted out in joyful surprise, making 2D stubble back in surprise, almost tripping over his own feet. Thankfully, they were outside, and he was able to grab on to a random steel pipe that stuck out of the ground.

"Oh! That's going to be fun!" Cybrog said with giddy smile. She couldn't help it, she didn't remember much of America. The last time she had been there was during the accidental filming of Stylo, and she had short-circuited, causing a segment of her memory data to become corrupted, and that section had happened to be the most recent one, which at the time had been the memories of her time in the USA. She was so happy to be going back to the USA that she might have jumped up and down happily a little, from excitement, had she not being carrying thirty to forty pounds worth of weapons on her persona (as usual). Apparently she had found that, while she no longer took orders from Murdoc as her master, she found a certain comfort on being well armed at all times.

"That's right girlies!" Murdoc boasted, making his favorite purple and black cape rise and flutter in the wind for a moment dramatically as he made a flourishing motion with his hand to emphasize his words, "We are all going to the country of stars, eagles, and burgers for your birthday!"

"We all think you could use some time in a big city baby girl." Russel added with a sweet fatherly smile. "It will be a nice change to breath the air and smog of car exhaust instead of all this crap in the island. It's probably healthier too!"

"Hey. It aint that bad Lards" Murdoc grumbled.

"My foot it isn't." Russel snorted, "Man, we lived in a cemetery, with a landfill as our backyard when we first got together and that STILL smells a better than this place by a long shot."

Murdoc just grumbled and huffed. He couldn't really argue that.

"Yeah well…" Russel replied, "At least we don't have zombies here."

As if on cue, the ground underneath their feet began to rumble, shaking not violently but rather unnaturally, which was perhaps more disturbing than if it had been an earthquake. A few yards away, the ground began shifting, dirt and trash starting to sections of it began to bulge out, as if something was pushing it upwards from underneath.

"You wanna bet?" Russel said drily, crouching slightly to steady himself just like all the others did, save for 2D, whose arms flayed around for a few seconds he steadied himself.

"Hey! You don't know those things are zombies." Murdoc shot back widening his standing stance and crouching down a little to maintain is balance, "It could be just… Water digging its way upwards or something."

However, no sooner he had said this, than a boney and grey looking arm, obviously in some advanced state of decomposition judging by the lack of muscle that revealed large sections of bones, shot out from one of the mounds of bulging trash and dirt. This arm was followed by others shooting out from the other mounds, all in different stages of decomposition, the skins sporting several different shades of greys and greens.

"You _had_ to open your mouth, didn't you?" Russel retorted at Murdoc, backing up a little as he watched the zombies start to rise. He would have thought that the green man would have learned by _now_ to not tempt fate.

"Enough!" Noodle barked, "This isn't time to argue." Her words stopped the argument that was threatening to erupt between the two eldest males of the band promptly, largely due to the fact that she was ever so right. Zombies weren't very bright, or very quick in reflexes, but the fact they attacked in large groups was VERY troublesome.

"Quick! Everyone grab a weapon!" Cyborg advised, instantly drawing out her own handguns first, already locking and loading on the general direction from where the decaying arms were protruding from the mounds.

The fastest to react to her suggestion was Noodle, who still was in the habit of carrying weapons, grabbing her own handguns from their hostlers (which she hid strapped to her thighs, where they could be covered by her skirt and be kept out of sight). She copied her half-cybernetic twin, aiming at the general direction of the enemy while the boys scrambled to pick out weapons from the ground. 2D jerked out from the ground the broken steel pipe that had saved him from falling earlier, the end of it having a nice heavy metallic lock end, one that would help him deliver hard blows. Murdoc was quick on grabbing a broken chair and slam it on the ground, breaking off the hard wooden legs and wielding them with the broken ends, which were quite sharp, outwards. And then there was Russle, who settled by grabbing an slightly bent golf club and hockey stick, which he strapped to his back with some broken rope that he found laying n the ground. They all did this is in a record time of 18 seconds.

"Um guys…?" Noodle spoke up, "I hope you are ready to get moving. I don't fancy waiting for them to come get us."

"She has a point." 2D spoke up, looking around at the others before pointing to the dead that were currently attempting to rise again. "Because I see more of those things starting to appear!"

Murdoc flicked his eyes to the enemy, and observed that the blue-haired man was indeed right, the number of mounds was increasing, and he wasn't eager on waiting for the living corpses to come out. "They are blocking the quickest way to the mansion."

"We have about 40 seconds before the first Zombies are out." Cyborg pointed out, " Not enough to run past them."

"We need to get to higher ground then." Noodle observed.

"36 seconds." Cyborg spoke out.

"There _is_ no high ground!" Murdoc spoke up, "Save for the mansion."

"33 Seconds."

"Hang on, there is a place!" 2D spoke up as he suddenly realized he had a possible solution. "This way!" He instantly began to ran off to the side, away from the ocean, heading closer to the vertical beam of trash that held up the Mansion. The other members looked at each other, shrugged, and ran after him.

"Are we really going to trust him?" Murdoc asked as he began to ran beside Russle.

"Do you have a better idea?" Russle replied sharply, looking over his shoulder for a moment, to glance at the zombies just in time to watch the first of them begin to pull themselves out, their heads already protruding from the ground. "because those things don't look like they want to sit down and talk about their feelings."

"Point taken." Murdoc coincided as he turned his head briefly to glance behind him too.

"18 seconds!" Cyborg shouted out as the group of friends sprinted after 2D, who was headed towards what seemed to be a large plastic tree, which appeared to be a replica of a large Oak tree. They all sort of understood his plan now. Climb the tree, get to safety, think later. Simple but at the moment, it would do. The girls quickly tucked away their guns in their holsters, keeping their hands free to climb. Like wise, Russel dropped the golf club, and Murdoc dropped his own makeshift weapons.

"Quick! This way!" 2D shouted as he started to climb the oak tree, dropping his pipe and leaping up to grab onto a realistic knot of plastic wood, using it as a handle to pull himself up. It took him no time at all to reach the first of the large branches a good 8 feet above ground. He leaned down, basically laying on the branch, parallel to its length and reached down, giving a hand to Noodle and Cyborg, who were the shortest and lightest, pulling them straight up with one hand and letting them perch themselves on branches adjacent to his.

"1 second everyone!" Cyborg shouted, just as she was pulled up.

Russle and Murdoc came next, hot on the heels of the girls, but 2D wasn't stupid enough to think he could lift them up with just one hand like he did with the girls. Even Murdoc weighed almost twice as much as the girls did, and _they_ weight only about a hundred pounds each ((A.N:100 lb is about 43.5 kg)). Murdoc had to be at least a hundred and eighty pounds, and Russle was probably twice that much or at least three hundred pounds. Besides, they were tall enough to climb like he had. Instead, he stood up on the branch and kept climbing, signaling to the girls to follow him. "This way!"

"Move it Lard ass!" He screamed, "Go go go! They are coming!"

"I'm trying you green-assed potbellied Imp!" Russle barked back as he huffed himself up on to the second large branch. Mean time, the first Zombies had finally pulled free, and had began to move with a disoriented gaze, heading roughly in the direction of the band members with that stereotypical slow zombie walk that is so common from the classical zombie, just as Murdoc started to climb the tree.

"Its not much further! This way!" 2D shouted down, easily pulling himself up, his long limbs and proportionally strong muscles allowing him to move with ease as he reached a familiar looking set of branches. "Found it!" He cheered as he jumped towards the branches. For a second Noodle and Cyborg were about to cry out to him to _not_ jump, such thin branches would never hold him up. Except that it was too late. He was already in mid jump as they started to open their mouths. He was going to fall. Fall bellow to the zombies that were walking to wards them. He would at least twist an ankle, and he probably would not be able to climb up again in time. He was going to die.

That was what flashed through the minds of the girls, along with a sinking feeling that had started to develop in their gut. But he didn't fall through. He didn't come crashing down. He didn't break any branches, nor did he fall tumbling down to his death. Instead, he grabbed on to some invisible edge (or at least, invisible to them from their angle) and pulled himself up, making dull thumping sounds as he climbed up. The two twin girls looked at each other wordlessly and started climbing after him. Obviously there was something there that was more solid than it seemed.

"Come come come!" 2D shouted at them as his head poked out from the seemingly thickly woven mat of thin branches, reaching down a hand towards each of the girls, "Come on up!"

They each take a hand, and are pulled up by the tall blue haired singer. To their surprise, they seemed to be on some sort of rectangular platform, easily 7 feet wide, and maybe 10 or 11 feet long, with the trunk of the tree piercing the center of it, acting as its main support.

"What the-" Noodle began to ask before a scream interrupted her.

"HAAAAALP! Some body get these good-for-nothing bloody bastard-faced ass-licking sodding dead wankers off my cape!" (((A/N: Can you guess who that is?)))

Noodle and Cyborg rushed towards the edge of the plastic platform, once more pulling their guns out from their holsters, and aiming their firearms down at the direction of the green-skinned man's screams. The first thing to become apparent was that they were slowly becoming surrounded by the walking-dead, a group of said zombies already at the edge of the tree, and one of them was hanging on to Murdoc's cape, trying to pull down the green man, who was literally wrapped around the thick tree branch, his arms and legs locked around the thick branch with an iron grip.

"Take it off!" Noodle shouted at him, shooting several of the living-dead through their brains before they could latch on to her green friend, saving him from being dragged down into the slowly growing crowd of zombies. He might have been a drunk asshole, but he was also her friend and her crazy drunk uncle-like family figure. And she would be damned before she lost him so easily.

"I can't!" he snapped back, "I need to use my arms for that and they are currently not available if you couldn't tell!"

"We can't get a clear shot at his head!" Cyborg shouted back at him, "He is partially hidden by your body!"

"Well do something about it!" He shouted back, his muscles straining under the pull of the undead.

Russle and 2D were looking down at Murdoc by now too, watching the problem develop before they eyes. And it was at this point, that Russle interened in the shouting match between the Murdoc and the twin girls. "Y'all need to zip it! Zombies have dulled senses but they still have them! Screaming aint helping us!" Russle said loudly, not quite shouting but his voice was clearly heard by the band members.

"I got an idea," Russle stated in a normal tone of voice, but he spoke quickly, "Girls, keep shooting them, keep them from getting that imp's green ass; 2D you are the best climber. You need to get down there and take off that cape. I'll follow you down half way and stay a little above you to lend you a hand if you need it. Go!"

The thing most didn't know or forget about Russle, was that he was very intelligent, even as a child he attended to a prestigious school and had excelled amongst his peers. While his time at that school was cut short due to him getting possessed during that time by a less than friendly entity, his intelligence remained. The plan he had instructed to his teammates had formed in his head in seconds, and given the circumstances, no one had time to argue. They just nodded and set to work quickly.

The girls returned to snipping the walking corpses, but this time, they attached silencers to their guns, heeding the advice from the white-eyed drummer and trying to minimize the noise that their guns produced. Their shots were accurate, blasting the heads of the walking corpses with lead, sending them back to rest in peace once more, this time permanently. Their shots were precise and fast, one shot per kill, and only a handful of seconds in between each shot. Meantime, 2D was climbing down with surprising dexterity, even jumping down from one tree branch to an other one in a few instances. Russle could only blink in their rush, for a moment wondering how this was possible, since the blue-haired singer had been known for his…. Clumsiness. Still, he pushed this thought away, focusing on trying to keep up with him. If it had been under any other circumstances, perhaps he would have embarrassingly clumsy climbing down the tree next to his blue-haired friend, considering that the blue-hired man had taken the lead and already climbed down a good 20 feet, while he had barely climbed down 10 at most.

Seconds later 2D was already dropping down to the same branch ass Murdoc, trying to help him up, while Murdoc screamed profanities at the zombies as if the words could injure them. Truth be told, if profanities and name-calling could be used as weapons, Murdoc would have the equivalent of a well equipped military platoon's worth in firepower.

"Let go of me yah damn disgustingly sorry excuse for bloody worm infested, third rate, flea-bitten, bastard of a half arsed, limp dicked corpse!" Murdoc shouted viciously at the groaning zombie that insistently pulled on his cape, once again showing off his 'graceful' and colorful vocabulary. Under any other circumstance, 2D might have had time to wonder how he has time to come up with that sort of sentences.

But given the circumstances, 2D simple began to work on releasing Murdock from the grip of his own cape. He held himself up with one hand wrapped around a thinner branch near him, leaning down awkwardly to grasp the latches of the cape, which fortunately where latched onto his shirt. His fingers fumbled around the latches, trying to figure out how the latch-things worked.

"Hurry up face-ache!" Murdoc barked, "Im not exactly feeling safe here!"

"Shut up Mudz!" Russle retorted as he finally started reaching them, "Just hang on to that branch for now and let him figure it out."

Murdoc was about to argue, but settled for closing his mouth and clenching his teeth together tightly, letting the black-eyed singer work on the latches while he focused on holding n to the branch. But he was getting tired, his muscles starting to ache from holding himself up to the branch. 2D focused intently, his face still flushed from climbing up and down the tree so quickly in such a short span of time, his brow starting to drip slightly with sweat. A few seconds later, 2D's finger finally found a latch on the medallion-like latch, and pried it open, making the taut cape shift the focus of its force, quickly followed by a cry of surprise from Murdoc as the direction of the pull changed. Still, the green man somehow managed to hag on.

"One down mudz!" Russle said as he finally grabbed on to a branch close to them and set himself ready for anything.

No sooner had he said this, without warning, a ripping sound was heard. Murdoc's black shirt had finally given away to the pull of the zombies, the latch that had connected the cape to his shirt tearing a good chunk of the shirt away. Most of the cloth that covered left shoulder, plus half of the part of the shirt that covered his of his pectoral muscle, had been torn away. The sudden release from force had made Murdoc almost slam his face against the thick branch that had held him up. Almost.

"Yah damn assholes! My shirt!" Murdoc raged at them as he scrambled to try get on top of the branch as 2D tried to pull him up, "Look what you did you bunch of rotting bastards! I hope that your those dried up and putrid raisins you have for balls get chewed off by rabid demon rats!"

"Easy Murdoc," Russle said as he grabbed hold of 2D's shirt with one hand to keep the singer from being pulled off the branch as he while pulled up Murdoc, "Lets just go up for now, the girls are doing a great job of killing the zombies that get too close, but they might need a break soon, and you don't want to be near the bottom of the tree if that happens."

Murdoc growled but nodded, still glaring at the undead monsters with a poisonous gaze. 2D was sure that if Murdoc had had a machine a flamethrower at the moment he would have gone in a zombie BBQ killing-spree. Murdoc finally managed to get up on top of the branch, and gave, perhaps for the first time in years (if ever) a grateful glance to 2D. "… Thanks, mate. I would have been toast without your help."

2D was stunned, as was Russle, both of them staring at Murdoc with surprised eyes. After a few awkward seconds Murdc finally coughed and cleared his throat, "But you are still an idiot! Now come on, lets get moving."

That seemed to snap the other two men back to their senses, and they all began to ascend towards the safety of the platform once more.

**0-0-0-0-0**

Once everyone was safe up on the platform, the team sat down and looked at each other in silence for a few seconds. They had avoided the zombies for the moment, however, now they faced a different problem: How to get rid of their undead guests.

Murdoc was the first to speak, crossing his arms as he looked around, "So…. What now?" His words were greeted by silence for a while. Everyone seemingly at a loss as to what their next step should be.

"Well then." Murdoc continued after a several long seconds of dead silence between them, "Lets start using those brains. What are we working with? Lets run through everything, from our situation to what's at our disposal."

The others exchanged glances, but began to do as he suggested, after all, they had no better ideas themselves.

Cyborg was the first to talk, quickly supplying the inventory of weapons available. "We have four handguns between me and Noodle, and a three clips remaining per hand gun. I also have my shotgun still strapped to my back, along with my machete, plus a four grenades strapped to my belt, and a knife. Additionally, Russle has his golf club still strapped to his back."

Everyone just stared at her for a moment. They knew she was carrying all of that, she had it hanging out, showing it to the world the whole time, but it was still impressive to have such an inventory listed out for you.

"Right then." Murdoc stated after a second of silence, "Well, we ain't in as bad of a position as we could be then."

"Now all we have to do," Russle added, "Is put what we have up to good use."

"Aye," Murdoc replied, "We need a plan. A good one."

"If we can get to the Mansion," Cyborg piped up, "the armory has more than sufficient weapons to deal with them."

"She is right," Murdoc stated, " The armory is well stocked. I maid sure of that." He said with a chuckle.

"Can we make a distraction?" Noodle asked, "Draw them away somehow."

"Maybe," Murdoc replied, "But remember that they have dulled senses, it would have to be a pretty damn good distraction to get them to move."

"Most of them probably don't have good vision," Russle said thoughtfully, "since their eyes are pretty banged up, if they still have them, So visual stimulation wont be a great distraction. I imagine their sense of touch is pretty much gone too, most of their skin is damaged, and the muscles are decaying. Their sinuses must be partially gone at least too, so their sense of smell is limited at best. So that means that if we want a distraction, maybe something with sound."

"Sound eh?" Murdoc said as he chewed his pipe. How he had not lost it while running for his life from zombies was beyond any of the band members. "Well then, good thing then, if any one knows about sound, it's us musicians, and we are the best musicians there are!"

The other members of the band had to grin at that comment. Yes, he was being egotistical, but he had a very valid point. They had made their lives and careers revolving around music and sound, it permeated their lives, and the most memorable times they had in their lives had occurred thanks to music, thanks to sound, in one way or an other. It wasn't an exaggeration to say they that they were experts in creating and using sound.

"Alright, so we got easy a couple of dozen zombies down there, most likely there are more than that," Murdoc continued, "So going don guns blazing might not be a good idea, specially since the sound might attract even more of them. What we got to do, is create noise elsewhere and make them move away from the base of the tree so we can make a run for it."

"That's about right." Russle said, "The easiest is probably making a loud noise tin the opposite direction of where we are going. "

"Cyborg," Murdoc said as his head snapped around to face the girl, an idea forming right away, " You can use the grenades and toss two of them away from our direction. We'll climb down as soon as they move away. Have your other two ready in case they start to come back. We'll make a break for the mansion, and Noodle and Cyborg can shoot down any zombie that comes too close to us while we run."

Everyone nodded. It wasn't A particularly creative, or elegant plan, but hey… When you are running for your life while being chased by a small army of undead cannibal corpses, you couldn't afford to be picky. Specially when you were out numbered easily a dozen to one.

"Alright then, lets do this then." Murdoc stated, "Lets get this show on the road. Everyone get ready."

No one needed to be told twice. Cyborg palmed a grenade on each hand, while everyone else got ready to start climbing down, crouching down near the end of the platform. Their muscles were tense and their eyes fixed on the zombies bellow, watching the mass of bodies sway and moan dully like a possessed ocean of rotting hands and faces.

"Ready everyone?" Murdoc asked.

"Ready when you are Mudz." Russle replied.

"Alright then." Murdoc said with a nod, "go on doll, throw them!"

Cyborg doesn't reply. Her face is the picture of concentration as she sweeps her arms forwards, throwing the grenades maybe fifty or maybe sixty feet away from the base of the tree, far enough to buy some time, close enough to make sure they all heard it. The granades blow up with a loud bang, fragments of each grenade managing to pierce into the flesh of some of the rotting corpses, further damaging their bodies. Sure enough, the zombies turn their heads towards the source of the sound, starting to march towards it in their signature sort of tumbling walk.

"Alright," Russle whispered once the zombies were a good ten feet away from the tree trunk, "Move! We don't have much time."

They all began their descend, trying to maneuver around and over plastic branches as they made their way as quickly and quietly as possible to the bottom. 2D was the first to touch down on the ground lightly, looking around carefully for his metallic pipe that he had tossed away during his mad scramble up the tree, finding the metallic tube on the floor by the base of their plastic hide out. Soon all the members of the band touch the ground, and by then, the zombies have almost reached the location where the grenades had exploded. Thinking quickly, Russle turns to Cyborg and whispers, "Toss an otherone in between them. It might not kill them all, but it will confuse them at least."

"Got it!" Cyborg replies, unclipping a third grenade from her belt, pulling the pin, and tossing at the center of the mass of zombies, "Everyone, lets move!" She whispers urgently, grabbing Noodle's and 2D's wrists to emphasize her point. The group moves as quickly and silently as they could, which was harder than expected, since the ground was composed of all sorts of trash. Thankfully the though, the explosion of the grenade distracted the zombies, confusing them as they stumbled and crashed into each other. They started running then, taking full advantage of the confusion to sprint away from the crowd of zombies.

They made it to the entrance within minutes, Noodle and Cyborg snipping sniping a few stray zombies that were dragging themselves around the beach. Murdoc thanked his lucky stars that he had decided to put the entrance so close to that plastic tree, otherwise things might have been less favorable for them.

They all sighed with relief once the heavy metal door was locked behind them. Safe. They were safe. Now all they had to do was go to the armory and get their "Toys". It was going to be a long night.

**-0-0-0-Return to Present Day-0-0-0-**

Murdoc snapped out of his memories when something warm and wet landed on his shoulder. He looked down questioningly, two see a dirty white and grey stain on his shoulder. His reaction was instantaneous.

"YOU FUCKING FLYING PIG-RATS WITH FEATHERS!" he roared as he shook his fists at the sky, cursing up a storm at the accursed seagull that had decided use him as target practice and pooped on his shoulder, "JUST YOU WAIT UNTIL I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!"

And while the satanic green man cursed at the flying animal with vicious anger, Russle laughed. And laughed and laughed. He couldn't help it. After so many things that Murdoc had gotten away with, it felt like that bird had given the green man a little taste of payback for all the bad karma said green man had accumulated.

"And what are _you_ laughing at lard ass?" Murdoc grumbled at the drummer as he huffed and grumbled, grabbing a piece of plastic from the floor trying to scrape away the defecation of the bird from his black sweater.

"You gonna need to wash that Mudzz." Russle said with a chuckle, his accent becoming slightly more pronounced as he said this. Truth be told, he was quite exited to go back to the U.S.A. But truth be told, he would have been exited to go almost anywhere as long as he could get away from the accursed island made of plastic. It was far worse than KONG. As a matter of fact, at least the zombies of KONG had been less putrid and disgusting. The ones they had had the displeasure of meeting yesterday were on a whole new level of disgusting. There had been zombies wearing with sailor suits dating back easily one or two hundred years.

Bottom line: Those zombies were just plain nasty to look at. Not to mention extremely offensive to the noses of anyone that was within half a kilometer from them.

"Yeah I know fatty!" Murdoc snapped back at the hulk-like Afro-American drummer, his nose flaring out as he still breathed hard with anger at the damnable bird that had ruined his sweater.

"While you do that," Russle said calmly, completely disregarding Murdoc's insults and anger, "I'll call 2D and the girls, and let them know we leave in a few minutes or so."

"Whatevah." Murdoc grumbled as he pulled out his pipe and began to chew on it before starting to march back into the mansion, "Now sod-off and call me when everything's done. I have to wash this damn thing."

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

Noodle was kneeling down on the floor of her room, humming happily as she clicked her suitcase shut, loaded with the last of her personal belongings. More specifically, it was loaded with a few changes of clothes, her underwear, and her weapons. She didn't really have much else that she "owned" at the moment. Despite her lack of possessions, she couldn't say she was upset or displeased with her current situation. Her time spent on that odd intersection between worlds had taught her the value of traveling lightly, and given the history that the Gorillaz had for getting into trouble, perhaps it was a good thing to travel light.

She stood up, standing her suitcase up right and pulling out the handle from the top of it. For a moment she stopped and looked around the room. It had been briefly been her personal room, a place for her to rest and call her own. After so long with out a place like that, she felt a little saddened to leave it. That said, once she left this island, it would be a fresh start, and it would give closure to that chapter of her life that involved her time apart from her friends. And that meant that a new chapter in her life would begin. One in which she could be with her family. And she very much enjoyed that idea.

Meantime, Cyborg was doing just the same in her room, packing the last of her belongings on a large suitcase (filled mostly with weapons of several sorts), searching her room methodically in case she had forgotten something. When she was convinced she hadn't forgotten anything, she allowed herself to close her suitcase. For a moment she stood there, her suitcase ready to be taken to the plane and stowed away, and looked around the room for the last time. This was the only "home" she had ever known. The only permanent residence she had ever had. She felt a twinge of what she classified as sadness at the thought of leaving her room and never returning. But at the same time, she felt a sort of… excitement at the thought of moving to a new location with her "family."

She smiled to herself, turning her back on the room and dragging her suitcase to the lift.

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

2D was already completely ready to go by the time Russle came in to tell him it was time to leave. He was the first one to be waiting in the plane, all ready to leave the forsaken island behind. He had been dreaming of this moment for years. And now it was happening.

Granted, their new home wouldn't be "Paradise", considering it was Alcatraz, but it would at least be a hell of a lot better smelling than Plastic Beach. Not to mention a hell of a lot closer to civilization too. Then again, any other location would have been closer to civilization than point nemo, the furthest removed point from any landmass on the planet. Comparatively speaking, Alcatraz was a garden of Eden to Plastic Beach. Oh it probably was haunted, or it had living gargoyles, or man-eating lobsters, but that was to be expected for them by now. Everywhere they lived had SOME sort of paranormal issue.

He kind of had grown to expect it to be honest. It was impossible to not expect after more than ten years of haunted houses, demons, zombies, aliens, vampires, leprechauns, and werewolves coming and going through your property like it was a public park for paranormal creatures. He had even sat down to have tea with a naga once while he was at KONG!

His train of thought, however, was interrupted when the girls suddenly sat beside him while Russle finished packing the bags, and Murdoc uncorked a new bottle of rum as he sat on the pilot's seat. Murdoc turned his head around and gave them an impish smirk, lifting the bottle towards them.

"To a new start!" He cheered, and took a big swig from the bottle, letting out a satisfied sigh. "That's the stuff! Alright then! Russle, get your fat ass over here and lets go!"

"Yeah, I got it." The drummer replied. "I'm here. Now lets get going you cracker ass alcoholic imp."

"Hey! I'm not an imp!" Murdoc shot back at him, starting up the engine of the small plane, "Now all of you muppets hang on tight, this is going to be a bumpy ride!"

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Stone and his crew checked into a hotel by the roadside after long driving hours. The girls were asleep but he was still wide-awake, still looking at the map that the old sailor had dawn on as he sat on a table, the light of a small overhanging lamp casting a shadow over his eyes as he inspected over and over again. The logic of the sailor seemed to be flawless, no matter how often he ran it through his head. Over and over he went over the process of elimination the sailor had bothered to explain to them. He had to admit the thought process had surprised him, the sailor was obviously a clever individual.

But still… It was just an educated guess. A probable outcome. The sailor might have very well been mistaken. But what other choice did they have? The self-proclaimed leader of the Gorillaz had been extremely careful to keep everything secret. Not that he could blame him, considering he had pissed off several people in the world of crooks and criminals, most notably, he had pissed off Jackal. And his boss _was_ famous for his cruelty for a reason. If he hadn't covered up his tracks so well, he would have been dead ages ago. Not only had the green man eluded capture through secrecy, but also, when he did reveal himself, he had made sure he was untouchable. The green-man's location of choice had been so remote and difficult to get to, it would have been suicidal for most to even attempt to reach it. And if you did reach it, you still had to deal with the fortress known as Plastic Beach, which was a fortress in and of itself, not to mention his personal bodyguard "Cyborg" Noodle.

Oh yes, the man had thought it all out. It was a perfect plan. He had to admit, though the self-proclaimed leader of the Gorillaz was a indisputably an alcoholic, green-skinned, chain smoking, asshole of a man without much shame to speak off, he also had a good brain on his shoulders. A very good one… Save for the fact that he was, as a fact, egotistical and borderline narcissistic.

Stone sighed and folded the map again neatly, tucking it away in his jacket before standing up and turning off the lights. He should get some sleep. Tomorrow they would arrive to the city and begin their search, and hopefully find something useful on their targets.

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**BOOM BABY! There you have it folks! The Latest chapter of "Awake Again" Woo! Yes, I know I haven't updated in… oh damn… a half a year almost? Ahem… well sorry! Anyways, currently I have finals, but I managed to squeeze a tiny bit of time to type this chapter. I've had it in my head for a while now.**

**SO! I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED IT! **

**Leave me a review and let me know what you thought of it! Reviews are really encouraging for me, so if you liked, hated, or felt neutral about the story, please do let me know!**

**So! Question and answer time!  
**1. Did you make this all up or base it off of some events either way its impressive :)  
-Answer: Its half and half. I did base a lot of it from the actual gorillaz videos and story boards.

2. This seems to bear very high realation to 3 of the videos. What video came after Melancholy hill?  
-Answer: After melancholy hill, there was no video. There WAS supposed to be a next one, one in which the boogieman attacked Plastic beach and Noodle and Russle returned. I THINK it was the "Rhinestone eyes" viedo that was supposed to be next, but due to the economic recession, it got cancelled. The story board is on Youtube if you want to search for it though.

3. How many chapters are there? Maybe you could make a sequal.

-Answer: Don't worry friend! The story isn't over yet, so I wont be making a sequel at the moment. However, there are 16 chapter now, including this one. There are several more to come too!

4. hi, was just wondering if you could pretty please finish the story? Its super awesome and I need to hear what happens with 2D and Cyborg and Noodle and the move to Alcatraz and I need to hear the rest of the story! Your writing is fantastic and I enjoy reading it. Please, please, please post the rest of the story soon! many pleases and thanks anon

-Answer: Thanks so much for your compliments! Don't worry, I'll finish the story, its just that I've been more bussy than I would like to be. That said, I'm still continueing the story so don't worry! I'll finish it.

**AAAAAAAAND that's it for the Q and A session. Tanks to everyone that reviewed! I really love reading the reviews, its great encouragement to keep writing. **

**Anyways! That's it for now guys! This is freedragon, logging out!**


	17. Chapter 17

**HELLO EVERYONE! Sorry for the MASSIVE delay in updates. BUT, here is the next chapter you were all craving! Also, this story JUST hit 110 reviews. I can't even explain how pumped I am about that! HELL YEAH!**

And now, without further ado, WELCOME BACK TO MY STORY!

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**Chapter 17: Welcome to the U.S.A!**

The flight had been a long one, particularly for 2D, since the girls had _insisted_ on leaning against him, grabbing onto his arms, and hugging them tightly against their chests. It was sort of... nice for him. But While they got quite comfortable and were soon able to shut their eyes to get some snooze time, 2D had remained wide awake, straining himself to remain as still as a statue in order to avoid awakening them... or making them emit suggestive sounds from their soft lips. He had already tried to move once, which had caused him to accidentally rub his arm against Cyborg's breasts, and this had made the slumbering Cyborg emit a small, soft moan that had affected him far more than he cared to admit.

As a result he knew he knew that he would have to spent about 8 hours doing his best to move as little as a possible. As if that wasn't bad enough, one hour into the flight 2D developed an itch on his nose.

This officially the toughest flight 2D had ever been in.

Mean time, Murdoc would glance over at 2D occasional and chuckle to himself with mischief, as the singer wiggle his nose and contort his face to try to get rid of the itch. Funny how he knew about the itch, right?

Satisfied with his mischief for the time being, Murdoc decided a good trick merited a reward, and alcohol was always a much appreciated reward. Reaching down to open a small box that was tied to the side of his seat, Murdoc began to extract what seemed to be a large bottle of some sort of alcoholic beverage. Unfortunately for him though, as soon as Murdoc pulled his tequila bottle out to take a swig of it, Russle slapped his hand, and the drummer did this none too gently.

"AW hell no!" Russle growled a he pinned the bass player with a one eyed glare, his face only partially turned towards Murdoc. "What are you, stupid? If you can't drink and drive in a_ car_ what makes you think it's a bloody good idea to drink and drive in a _plane_, you green ass crackhead?"

Murdoc grumbled, and shot Russle a glare of his own, "Listen here you-"

"Oh, no." Russle cut him off sharply as he dropped his voice to a loud whisper. "YOU listen to me. This flight is more important than any we've had before. We are going to our new house, man! With Noodle and Cyborg too! We can't afford to mess it up this early on. So suck it up. It's not even a whole half a day length in terms of time, you can stick it out for that long without booze."

Murdoc glared at the drummer one last time, but finally nodded at him and refocused on the flight. "Fine."

Satisfied, Russle relaxed back into his chair and focused on helping pilot the aircraft, convinced that this flight would now be nice and smooth. The girls were slumbering soundly, 2D was keeping them company, there was no putrid and disgusting stench of a rotting pile of trash, Murdoc wasn't going to be an alcoholic dickhead for once... It was almost too good to be true. It was as if everything had fallen into place for once.

And as it turns out, Russle was right. It _was_ too good to be true. Without their knowledge, a phantom plane from World War 2 with a Nazi swastika painted on its side had been tailing them for the last hour from a distance. The pilot of this phantom aircraft seemed to have greenish-grey skin colour, though his body had an eerie translucent look to it.

Within the next thirty minutes, two more old planes with roughly the same state of decay as the first plane, dropped from the clouds above the first phantom plane, flanking him before falling behind it into a "V" formation.

A raspy yet dark voice spoke in a loud whisper through the radio of the phantom aircrafts in a convoluted and archaic language, the voice feeling almost toxic, as if the words corroded away at the joy of things. It was a voice that Murdoc would have recognized anywhere, and one he wouldn't ever forget, even if he tried to.

The voice barked an order to the Pirate Jets' pilots, who in turn groaned an affirmative, nodding their heads in a zombie-like motion after the corrosive voice ceased to speak. They had their orders. Now they had to execute them. The engines of the phantom planes roared with renewed strength a moment later, their ghostly pilots demanding more speed from them in order to catch up with the aircraft piloted with the Gorillaz.

Inside the plane being piloted by the Gorillaz, they were all blissfully oblivious to the danger that was perusing them. Unaware.

"Hmm?" Russle commented idly, frowning slightly, "man, this engine is whacked Murdoc. When was the last time you checked it?"

"What are yah on about, Russ?" Murdoc replied, sounding almost offended. "There is nothin' wrong with this baby! I even modified her."

"Well are you sure you modified her correctly? 'Cause it's sounding a little clunky."

"What are you talking about, lards? It's perfectly fine!"

"Oh yeah?" Russle asked as he quirked his eyebrow at Murdoc, "then what's that sound, eh? Listen, it's getting louder."

"What have you been smoking, you-?" Murdoc began to reply when he heard it too, a whirring sound, as if a small chorus of echoes from other engines was whirring around. "The hell...?"

"See what I mean?" Russle replied, as the noise slowly became louder. "That ain't right man."

Russle was right. But that couldn't be right, Murdoc was sure of it! He had modified the plane several times to make it perfect! He needed it to be perfect, considering that the King of the Bass guitar (which is what he thought himself as), deserved the best. Something was bothering him now about that sound. His engine couldn't be the problem... Then he noticed something about the sound. It WASN'T coming from his engine. This baffled him for a second, for how could that be? In the middle of the open ocean? How in the world was that phantom echo...

Murdoc paled as it hit him. All at once he understood were the sound was and what it meant. He whipped his head around and looked through the side mirror that he had placed on the plane his mouth hanging open aghast for a second as he saw three dots, obviously small planes growing in size as they drew closer.

"Oh shit..." Murdoc mumbled, causing Russle to frown and look at his own mirror too, gazing at it just like Murdoc was doing.

"The hell...?" Russle asked himself, while Murdoc shut his hanging mouth and turned back to gaze straight ahead again.

"Buckle up Russle. We got visitors."

Without hesitation, Murdoc pulled his sailor hat tighter over his head and hit the gas on the aircraft, forcing it to speed up quite quickly as he tried to pull away from the Pirate Jets. The sudden jolt of the plane pulling away forced everyone to be pressed against the backrest of their seats, startling 2D and making the girls squirm slightly in their sleep.

"Uh... Guys?" 2D asked questioningly, "Why are we speeding up?"

"Shut yer' face, face-ache!" Murdoc growled back at him, his eye still fixed on the open sky ahead of him. "If you want to know, just look behind us. We got us some nasty visitors."

2D was taking aback by the reply, flinching at Murdoc's words. By the tone of the Bass player's voice, he could tell something was very wrong. He twisted his head around, and glanced over his shoulder, catching sight of the pursuing planes through the small back window at the rear of the plane. His eye widen, and his head jerked back slightly as he instinctively recoiled from the sight of the pirate jets. He knew them all too well, considering that they had aided the boogieman attack them previously too. Those nasty flying bastards were viscous with a capital V.

"Oh snap..." 2D uttered out, looking at the approaching pirate jets with disbelief. "Mudz, Ruz? You might want to step on it. They are aiming some kind of metallic pipe at us, and I'm pretty sure that's a sort of gun. I don't think those guns shoot cotton candy either."

Murdoc cursed under his breath and looked at Russle before nodding with hard eyes. "Machine guns I bet. Buckle up everyone, this is going to be a bumpy ride. Wake up the girls 2D."

2D nodded and proceeded to shake the girls awake with haste, his head constantly turning to look towards the approaching pirate jets, whose old and half-rusted gun muzzles had began to take aim at them. 2D's heart sped up now, beating hard as he shook the girls awake less gently than he would have done under normal circumstances.

"Girls! Wake up, quick!" He said loudly, refraining from shouting but just barely. "We got trouble!"

The girls drowsily opened their eyes, just in time for hearing Murdoc shout. "Hold on now!"

The plane swerved tightly, slicing across the sky as it tuned sharply in the sky, the sound of gunfire starting up behind them a second later. The girls squeaked with surprise (which 2D would have thought was cute if he wasn't currently concerned with staying alive) when the plane turned like that, jolting them wide awake while 2D wrapped his arms around their shoulder to keep them from smacking their heads against something.

"What's is going on?!" Noodle shouted out with surprise, looking around wildly as the sound of gunfire rang out around the plane.

"What does it look like is going on?!" Murdoc snapped back at her while taking a bit of a nose dive only to pull up again, avoiding a volley of lead from one of the rusted machine-guns on the planes that chased them. "We are getting fired at!"

"Shut your trap and fly Mudz!" Russel shouted, "These pirate jets are persistent bastards!"

It was pretty obvious everyone of the members of Gorillaz that they were in a quite messy problem. They didn't even have an appropriate way to fight back... Or didn't they? Resourceful as ever, Cyborg's eyes lit up as she recalled a certain modification that had been done to the plane. Back when Murdoc had just began his Plastic Beach campaign, he had been hunted by many a hit-men. As a precaution, he had gone to certain lengths to ensure his safety. Creating Cyborg was one of them. Adding hidden weaponry to the aircraft they were currently using was another.

Fuelled by adrenaline, Cyborg unclipped her seatbelt and leaped over the back of her seat in a flash, reaching the luggage section of the plane. The Gorillaz's aircraft swerved once more, turning tightly to the side as Murdoc and Russle piloted the plane into an other evasive maneuver which also sent Cyborg sprawling sideways against the wall.

"Cy!" 2D shouted out urgently as he tried to look back at her, Noodle trying to do the same. "What are you doing?!"

"To get the guns!" Se shouted back over the noise of the plane's engine, scrambling back up to grab on to the seats. She managed to grab on to Noodle's head rest just before a sharp dive which was leveled off again in less than a handful of seconds.

"Guns? What guns?!" 2D and Noodle shouted in synchronization, startled by the words of the purple haired girl.

Noodle didn't respond immediately, instead she let go of the head rest and crawled onto the very back of the plane, and laid on her belly as she pulled some sort of trap door. The little door popped off easily, and from it raised automatically a small TV screen, maybe 14 inches wide and 10 high. Along with the TV, a couple of instruments (curiously similar to the Joysticks used for videogames) raised with it. The TV came online at touch of a button, and Cyborg right away grabbed both joysticks.

"Defense System Online." An electronic voice said out loud when the TV screen came on. "Activating defensive measures."

These words were followed by an odd whirring sound bellow cyborg as hidden gears within the plane began to work. The TV screen began to blink the word "loading" for a few seconds, before the display revealed the image of the sky behind the plane. Evidently there was some sort of camera attached to the back of the plane. Then another whirring noise was heard from the back of the plane, and the screen revealed the tips of two machineguns facing away from the screen, aimed towards the approaching pirate jets.

"Hey that kinda looks like a gamming platform." 2D pointed out, momentarily distracted from their current life-or-death situation. "Its got even the aiming circle thingy that shows you where each gun is pointed at."

"Defensive Measure are Online." The mechanical voice spoke out again, and Cyborg focused in on the device.

Soon she clicked on the triggers of the joysticks, and the sky became a shoot out fight between the three Pirate jets and the modified Gorillaz plane. Guns blazed, smoke and bullets sailed through the air as Russle and Murdoc piloted the aircraft through maneuvers that were challenging but necessary in order to avoid the rusty Pirate jets. An as the two pilots of the Gorillaz aircraft dodged and tried to give Cyborg a clear shot in the process too, cyborg did her best to shoot the flying bastards out of the skies. 2D an Noodle, on the other hand, tried to give updates to Russle and Murdoc on the movements of the planes behind them, since the pirate jets sometimes would move into blind spots were Murdoc and Russle could not see them.

In the back of his head, 2D could only be thankful that it was the corpses of the pilots that were flying those things, rather then the real thing. The movements of the planes were not as smooth or as controlled as they would have been if they were fully alive and aware of their surroundings. After all, bones on their own are not precisely ideal for fine motor movement.

Soon, the first pirate jet fell, after half of its rusty left wing crumbled with a few bullets from Cyborg's guns. The bullets the machine gun punched through the un-kept shell of the pirate jet plane's wing were widened and torn asunder by the pressure of the wind. Rust and rot apparently had eaten away at its prior sturdiness to the point that only a few bullet holes were enough to tear away an entire wing. The plane's wing combusted into fire as it fell, turning it into a blazing chunk of metal as it fell towards the depths of the open ocean, hundreds of miles away from any land.

"One down boys!" Noodle shouted at the Russle and Murdoc over the roar of the machineguns, "Keep it up, Cyborg will get the other two!"

With one plane gone, Russle and Murdoc had a little more freedom of movement for evasive tactics. They made full use of this in every way they could, swerving tightly, diving, spiking upwards, twisting through the air however they could as they tried to evade and yet keep their course.

"God damn those Pirate jets!" Murdoc growled as he gritted his teeth and cursed a continuous string of hateful words towards the boogieman and his lackeys. "We can't keep this up for much longer. Those guys are slowly driving us into a corner with their tactics. Shoot them down already Cyborg!"

"I'm trying!" Cyborg shouted back as she clicked on the triggers again, missing the pirate jets by the width of hair's thickness. "Damn it all…"

2D, who had steadily become more and more silent as he observed the screen, suddenly said loudly, "I got an idea!"

"Well that's a first!" Murdoc snapped back at him, hardly in the mood for any nonsense.

"Shut your gob Mudz." Russle replied cripplingly, "We got nothing right now, might as well hear him out."

Murdoc grumbled and gnashed his teeth without a reply, but a moment later bullets started to actually hit the plane. It was at this point that he relented.

"Okay fine, fuck it all!" Murdoc shouted out with frustration, "We are gonna be dead in minutes at this rate anyways. What's this idea of yours face-ache?"

Though his words were begrudgingly spoken, Murdoc, for once, sounded legitimately interested in what idea 2D had in his head.

"Follow my instructions. I need you to pull up sharply so that we are flying almost straight up."

For once, Murdoc didn't argue, he simply did as he was told. Their plane jerked upwards roughly, throwing everyone into their seats. Cybrog, who was just laying on the floor, almost stumbled face first into the TV screen, had it not being for Noodles amazing reflexes, which allowed Noodle to turn around in time to grab hold of Cyborgs ankles to keep her from sliding to the back of the plane.

As expected, the pirate jets lagged behind their response time due to their lack of movement, giving the Gorillaz a precious few seconds of advantage over the Pirate jets. Up and up the planes climbed, until they were traveling almost perfectly vertically. Cyborg kept shooting at the jets, slowing them down slightly, keeping them from being able to aim at their plane properly.

"Steady… Steady…" 2D mumbled out, looking back at the screen which showed the Pirate jets gaining on them, coming closer together in the process until there was only a small gap between both planes, just enough to allow an other small plane through.

"DIVE STRAIGHT DOWN NOW!" 2D shouted out so loudly it was almost a roar, surprising Russle and Murdoc so badly that their hands jerked forwards. This caused the plane to dive down, dropping like a boulder falling out of the sky. The plane barely made it between the two Pirate jets, and the irate jets tried to follow. The only problem for them was that they were too close together, and the pirate jets crashed their wings together, making the pilots loose control as their wings came apart.

"Shoot them up Cy!" 2D ordered, and Cyborg followed his command perfectly, unleashing a hail of bullets on both planes so eeviciently, that the shell of the pirate jets looked like it had been eaten by an army of massive metal eating moths. However, this only lasted a second before ta bullet was punched through their gas tanks, turning both planes into a blazing balls of fire.

2D and Noodle let out a big whoop of victory, and Murdoc and Russle cheered along with Cyborg as they swerved away from the trajectory of the dropping mass of burning metal that _used_ to be the two remaining pirate jets.

Minutes later, after everyone had regained their breaths, and they were once more on a steady course towards the U.S.A, Russle turned around to look at 2D (who was being hugged tightly by two very affectionate girls).

"Man, how the hell did you come up with that shit?" Russle asked bluntly.

"Well…" 2D said sheepishly.

"Yeah, common tell us man." Murdoc said as he looked back at him too, putting the plane in automatic for a moment. "I didn't think possible for you to come up with anything like that. It's a god damn miracle."

Murdock's words earned the green-sknied man a dirty look from Russle, but 2D didn't mind it too much. That was as close to a compliment as he had gotten from Murdoc in a long time.

"It was um…" 2D began, "It was from a game…" He mumbled out.

"Say what!?" Murdoc asked with bafflement.

"Run that by me again?" Russle asked with a stunned look to his face.

"It was from a video game." 2D said louder this time.

"You mean to tell me," Murdoc replied with an stupefied voice, "That all that we just did was just some stunt that you pulled out from your arse, because you used it in a video game before?"

"Pretty much." 2D said as his lips twitched up into an awkward smile.

"Bloody hell…" Murdoc mumbled out, "Saved by Face-ache, _because_ of a videogame e played too. What are the fucking odds of that eh?"

"No kidding." Russle replied bluntly, his voice as stunned as Murdoc's. "But that still that doesn't explain it though. How did you remember that in the middle of all that chaos?"

"Um… Because I was watching Cy." 2D replied, "You know, it looked like a videogame and all… And I used to play a zombie game a lot, and there was a part in which you had to take down those buggers as they chased your plane with their own… so the situation in the game was pretty much the same as what we had going just a few minutes ago, so it seemed like the perfect tactic to use…"

"Well I'll be damned." Murdoc spoke out. "Who knew your damn zombie games would save our skins one day?"

"That was pretty cool though." Noodle spoke out with a grin.

"Yeah. You totally save us 2D." Cyborg added in, smiling brightly.

"You earned this." Noodle said with a coy smile to Cyborg.

"Earned what?" 2D asked with curiously.

"This." Cyborg piped up.

A moment later both Cyborg and Noodle leaned up and each kissed one cheek of his face, making him blush bright red, and causing Murdoc and Russle to laugh at him heartily.

It seemed that things were back to normal, at least for now.

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Stone, Nami, and Gwen had chosen to head over to San Francisco first, since it was closer to them than Los Angeles. It was, of course, a gamble to simply guess this was where the Gorillaz would be, but given the circumstances, there was no other choice. Even if they could split up, gathering information with just one person was a lot harder than gathering information with a group of people, especially in cities as big as San Francisco and Los Angeles. As a result, the team had decided to simply choose one of the cities to begin their search and hope for the best. Of course, they did contact a few people that owed them favors in Los Angeles jus in case, to help them keep an eye out for any suspicious planes or people that matched the description of the Gorillaz. However, they had determined to focus the bulk of their efforts to locate the Gorillaz in San Francisco

This was the reason why they had settled in San Fransico for the moment. The first thing they had done upon their arrival to the city was to start hacking into all the security cameras of any airports and docking places for ships, searching for anything that struck them as weird. At the same time, they had contacted a few friends in the area, asking them to keep an eye out too. They even bribed a few airport security officers, and asked them to contact them if anyone matching with Murdoc's description was found.

Thus they began to set a trap for the Gorillaz, placing eyes and ears wherever they could, hoping to get something.

And they would get something. In time.

If only the Gorillaz knew what was laying in wait for them.

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**AAAAAAAAAND CUT! There we go me mates. How did you like that? It was actually surprisingly difficult to come up with the plane-chase scene. Well, at least wording it was difficult. But! I think it came out alright.**

Anyways, thank you all for reading! Review the story and let me know what you think! If you have any ideas, send them my way too. Who knows? I might use them!

**Freedragon, Logging out!**


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